A Web of Magic
by Ambiguous Cake
Summary: A Crossover between Once Upon a Time, BBC Merlin, and Hary Potter. Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Neville, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D Rated T to be safe
1. Collide

So this is a crossover of BBC Merlin, Once Upon a Time, and Harry Potter. Once I saw the season 4 finale of OUAT, I knew that this just had to be a thing, at least combining it with Merlin BBC. But, I didn't have a good enough idea for it at the time and it sat undone. And then, I had a dream about these 3 fandoms coming together and I knew what I wanted to do. Magic. And thus, Harry Potter was added into it and things started weaving together and criss crossing and things kept getting tangled with each other so that it created a veritable web of magic. Hence the title.

Spoilers for all 3 fandoms up to end of HP (follows the books), end of Merlin, and end of season 4 for OUAT.

Summary: Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D

Chapter 1: Collide

* * *

HENRY

Henry felt his blood run cold as he heard his family yelling outside. He looked up at Belle, who gave him a quick nod to say she'd take care of things here, and then he was out the door. The first thing he saw was the swirling vortex of darkness enveloping someone. At first, he thought it was Regina, but a closer inspection revealed it to be his other mom. Sprinting as fast as he could down the road, he was only able to hear her say "I love you" to Hook before the darkness overcame her and she was gone. He watched the dagger clatter to the ground and he felt like the whole world had just stopped moving.

"What… just happened to my mom?" Henry barely managed to choke out as his brain sorted out what just happened. His mother, one of them at least, was gone. Lost to the darkest force this world or any other would ever know. Tears threatened to fall at the corner of his eyes, but he didn't want to cry. Crying wouldn't solve anything right now, nor was there any time to deal wit the emotions threatening to take over. He had to save his mom.

Immediately, Regina detached herself from Robin Hood, (a small part of Henry was happy to see them together, only to be quashed by the overwhelming loss of the moment) and went to comfort her son.

"It's ok, Henry. Emma… she absorbed the darkness. Wanted to contain it so it wouldn't hurt anyone," Regina spoke softly as she hugged Henry closer to her. Henry hugged her back, wanting to gain any amount of comfort he could at the moment, at least until he processed everything and could decide what to do. They stayed like that for a minute, and Henry could hear everyone shuffling around nervously, afraid to ask the question that needed an answer.

"Is she okay?" Henry finally decided to voice it.

"I don't know, luv," Hook answered. Henry broke the hug to look at him while Regina repositioned herself so she had a hand on his shoulder.

"We need to find her," Snow spoke up after a moment, and Henry saw her look to Charming for confirmation who nodded.

"I want to find her, too, but we don't know where to start," Hook said, waving his hand around in a circle for emphasis. Henry was about to voice that they should go find Merlin when a new voice interrupted them.

"It's finally happened then." Henry turned around to see a blonde haired woman walking down the street. He recognized her face, but couldn't quite place where or how he knew her. Whoever she was, she had an air of regality about her, despite wearing a simple floor length dress. It was in the way she stepped lightly on the ground, how her head stayed level, or perhaps it was the blueness of her eyes. Her entire aura simply demanded the attention and respect of every person who saw her.

"What's happened?" Regina asked, and Henry felt her hand clench on his shoulder.

"She's been overcome by the darkness," the woman answered, still not introducing herself.

"You knew this would happen?" Snow demanded, and Henry could see everyone tensing for a fight.

"Mom, who is she?" Henry whispered as the woman paused to gather her thoughts. He had a feeling he should know this woman, but couldn't quite place where or how.

"She came with the latest curse, opened a jewelry shop downtown."

"Who was she before the curse?" Henry pressed on as he racked his brain through the book of fairy tales trying to see if anything came to him.

"I don't know," Regina confessed, "I never thought to ask." Henry wanted to press his mother for more information, but the woman started speaking again, choosing her words carefully.

"I knew it would happen, yes, but I did not know when or how. I am a seer, and many years ago I saw this event happening."

"Why not tell us then? Maybe we could have prevented it," Charming challenged the woman, but she only nodded in response.

"Perhaps I should have. But in telling you, you could have committed a more grave sin trying to prevent it. As a seer, I often see people go to great lengths to avoid one future, while creating something entirely worse. And even then, they do not escape their fate."

Henry thought about Rumplestilskin and the story of the blind seer. How he went to such great lengths to try to prevent her prophecy, only to make it come true on his own and in the worst way possible.

"So why come forward now? And who are you?" Henry asked calmly, trying to bring the tension down. The woman turned to him, her bright blue eyes looking at him, looking past him, and he tried to suppress a shiver but failed. And then the woman smiled at him.

"Yes, I haven't met you yet, have I? My name is Elaine, I run the jewelry shop here and while I could do little to prevent her from becoming dark, I have been researching for a way to get the darkness out of her. Also, I think one of you should grab that dagger."

Everyone now just seemed to realize that yes, the dark one's dagger was just lying on the street for anyone to take. Almost as if everyone had decided upon this beforehand, everyone turned their gaze to Hook, urging him to be the one to take it. He gave a solemn nod and picked up the dagger before putting it in his cloak. Henry realized belatedly that she avoided answering his question about who she really was.

"Couldn't we use the dagger to call her back here?" Robin Hood voiced aloud. Everyone in the group gave a nod in mutual agreement before Elaine interrupted them.

"I do not think it would be wise to call her back here."

"You know where she is?" Snow asked with a little more force behind it than she had probably intended.

"Yes, she is in England at the moment, trying very hard not to come here."

"Why wouldn't she want to be here?"

"You have never seen someone before and after becoming the dark one. If she were here now, she would be trying to trick you into giving her the dagger. And if she could not trick you, threaten you with each other. Above all else, the dark one desires their dagger for they hate to be controlled."

"Why isn't she here then, if the dagger is here?" Regina asked.

"Because Emma was originally so full of light. She herself does not desire the dagger, and in fact wants to be far away from it as possible. She knows that if she were here, she would hurt you. So, she hides away. The downside to this is that the dark one is in almost complete control of her other actions."

"We can still tell her not to do thing right? Like not to hurt people?" Henry voiced, hoping it would be true. The last thing he wanted was for Emma to come back to herself and realized that she had killed numerous people.

"Yes, that should be possible," Elaine conceded and waved a hand at Hook to tell him to do the honors.

"Do not hurt or kill or purposefully injure anyone," Hook spoke into the dagger. As Hook putt he dagger away, Henry noticed a slight tremble to his hand. So, Hook was feeling more nervous than he let on. Looking around them, Henry noticed that everyone seemed to be on edge, Regina's hand still at his shoulder and rubbing it in an effort to keep him calm, or maybe to keep herself calm? Henry honestly couldn't tell.

"We'll have to go to England on a plane then," Henry announced, bringing everyone back down.

"Why not just transport there?" Elaine asked.

"Well, there's no magic in England, right? Just in Storybrooke." Even as Henry said this, he could tell that he was wrong from the way Elaine's eyes twinkled.

"My dear boy, there is more magic in England than anywhere else in the world. You might even say, magic itself lives there. Also, what is a plane?"

"You've seriously never heard of a plane before?" Regina asked before she could stop herself.

"Regina!" Snow admonished, knowing that there were plenty of people in Storybrooke who were still trying to adjust.

"I'm sorry, I've been asleep a few thousand years. In the short time I've been awake, I haven't come across that word."

At this, numerous questions came to Henry's mind about how old she was and what she was doing before she went to sleep, but a sharp look from Snow told him it was better to keep his mouth shut for the moment. So Henry opted for something funny instead.

"It's a giant piece of metal with metal wings that uses fire to push itself across the sky." The look on Elaine's face, as her graceful features morphed into an expression of surprise and fear was totally worth whatever admonishment he'd get from Snow later. Someone had to keep things light around here, and who better to do it than him?

* * *

MERLIN

Merlin felt it when the Dark One escaped. His head exploded in pain and he clutched at it as he tried to deal with the surge of energy running through him, the earth's natural defense against the darkness. His heart beat like a drum in his chest, trying to control the magic as it raged in him. But he could not control it, he could not stop it. He was as he has always been, the earth's magical puppet. When the balance of magic went out of whack, the earth called on him to fix it, regardless of how he felt about it. Well, there was the one time it let him save a baby who ended up taking down the one of the worst Dark Lords in magic history. For that, he was incredibly grateful.

Many years ago, he attempted to get rid of this darkness, but was unable to. He fought it for years in the shadows, but even when he destroyed the vessel, the darkness lived on. The earth could not help him destroy it, there simply wasn't enough magic left after the great purge. So, Merlin did what anyone does; he swept it under the rug. Except, when Merlin sweeps something under a rug, he creates pocket dimensions for the darkness to roam around in until he can find a solution for it.

What Merlin did not anticipate was how full of life these microcosms of universes would be. It became a past time of his to write down what happened in these worlds and share it with others as he kept a watch over the darkness. They gained their own life, their own purpose! How wonderful was that?! Merlin watched these worlds grow for a long time, writing down what happened and changing things at times to balance out the darkness he created, until they started multiplying. Merlin may have a lot of time on his hands, but not even he had that much.

Still, Merlin wanted these worlds' stories to continue, and someone had to be there to control the darkness inside. There was a chance of the darkness growing too much and destroying the world it was in. As an added bonus, their stories could be written down and passed to the real world, as proof that they existed. So, he created a pen that could recreate and at times alter the stories of these worlds and let it select those he deemed worthy of the job.

Which worked fine until apparently this last Author screwed everything up in his own selfishness and let the darkness into the world. So now Merlin had to find a way to destroy the darkness once and for all. Goes to show that you can't put off the inevitable forever, even if you can avoid it for thousands of years.

As the burning pain in his chest went down, Merlin looked up from his position on the floor (how did he get on the floor?) to see a young woman staring at him. Oh yes, he was in his herb shop. Which makes sense, since that's where he's been for the last few hours today and every other day. He had set up shop in Diagon Alley a few years out of sheer boredom. It helped pass the days.

"Are you alright?" the young woman asked, bringing him back to the present again. Merlin blinked and his brain finally decided to wake up and process everything. She was in her early thirties, or late twenties, with thick light brown hair and appeared very concerned. Her hand was also extended towards him, just waiting for him to take it. Which he should do soon.

"Ah, yes, yes, it's just my er heart does that sometimes," Merlin responded, feeling only slightly guilty at the lie, as he took her hand and she pulled him to his feet. He tugged at his scarf a little in an attempt to calm down and gather his thoughts.

"Oh, well, I know a good recipe for heart pain if you need it," the woman offered, already opening a bag she had and reaching in.

"No, no, I'm good, really. I have my own recipe for heart pain." The woman seemed to remember where she was then as her head swiveled about, taking in the various kinds of herbs and ingredients that the shop had.

"Yes, right, I'll just continue looking then," she said and started to peruse the shelves more.

"Maybe I can help you find something then?" Merlin offered, having nothing better to do at the moment. Well, he could start researching a way to destroy the darkness, but he'd rather not have someone else here when he did that. Could be dangerous.

"Yes! I was looking for… hold on a moment." The woman pulled out her bag again and stuck her arm in up to her shoulder before pulling out a massive tome that would make even Gaius raise his eyebrows in astonishment. Even as the thought reached him, Merlin pushed it aside to better concentrate on the matter at hand. "These things, I can't pronounce their name and the other shop I usually go to didn't have them so I came here…"

"Hm yes, I have those here, but might I see the recipe you're making?"

"Well, I'm making 2 salves actually. This one," the woman flipped through the book and pointed out the page to him, "and this one," she said as she flipped forward some more, marking all three places with her fingers. "The first one should cool the affected area to stop the sizzling and bubbling, and the second one mimics the skin around it so that it will stay the same color until that naturally fades away."

"Makes sense," Merlin agreed, "but if you apply the second one after the first one, it actually starts to mixes with it and instead of mimicking the surrounding skin, it mimics the salve, which in this case… is a lizard. So he'd end up with lizard skin on his arm."

Merlin looked up from the book to see her staring at him in astonishment, before pulling the book away and examining the recipes more closely. Merlin heard her give a little gasp before exclaiming, "You're right!" and going back to staring at him in wonder now.

"Yeah, so unless you want him peeling off scales, which is really painful by the way, I would suggest using these," Merlin explained as he walked around the store picking up what he wanted, "and rubbing it on the affected area." He handed the woman the ingredients, who stared at them for a moment before riffling through her book furiously.

"There's nothing in here that contains these 3 ingredients…" she declared not even a minute later. Merlin didn't question how she had read through the book that fast, perhaps a charm for that existed now and instead rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Well, I could make it for you if you'd like…"

"Could you tell me the recipe instead?" she blurted out before he could even really finish. Merlin looked up at her again and he could feel the excitement rolling off of her as she rummaged through her bag again and pulled out some parchment and a quill. Merlin felt a little humbled; no one ever asks him for his recipes anymore, they just want him to make it for them.

"Sure. You must've been in Ravenclaw then, right?" he commented as he took the parchment and quill and began to write the recipe down. He didn't miss the mischievous smile she put on though at his words.

"You're not the first one to say that, but no I was in Gryffindor actually," the woman said with quite a bit of pride in her voice. It was only then that he recognized who she was, but to be fair it had been over 10 years since he'd last seen her. Hermione Granger, who fought alongside Harry to defeat Voldemort. The brightest witch of her age, or so he'd heard. The realization brought back a lot of awful memories of Merlin being helpless to save people from Voldemort's wrath, bound as he was to earth that decided Harry would be sufficient enough to defeat him. Not that it was wrong in the end, but it didn't stop Merlin from hating every agonizing minute of not being able to do anything while people suffered.

"Here you go," Merlin handed Hermione the recipe a minute later. She immediately began to look it over, dissecting it and figuring out how it worked. Merlin couldn't help the small smile he had then, he loved seeing people enjoy learning new things.

"Thank you for this, now if only we could find a way to cure stupidity," Hermione grumbled as she put the piece of parchment away and Merlin fought back a laugh. He could almost imagine Arthur saying the same thing about him. Arthur…

"Right, well, if that's all you'll need then," Merlin said, mostly to prevent himself from going down that dark path again.

"Yes, right, how much for the ingredients?"

"Just take them," Merlin dismissed. He hated charging people for herbs when they could be found naturally, well, some of them anyway. Others he had to grow on his own since people keep destroying the land, but even so. What need did he have of money? He rarely bought anything, preferring to grow his own food and make his own clothes.

"But-"

"I always love helping someone that like to learn. If you must pay me back, visit the shop more often. I get bored here," Merlin said with a smile. Hermione looked like she still wanted to protest, but in the end gave a small huff and rolled her eyes, probably remembering something else, before she looked back at him and smiled as well.

"I'll do that then, and thank you."

"No problem, have a nice day now," Merlin called she walked away and waved over her shoulder. He waited until she was out of site before he flicked his open sign to closed, drew his curtains shut with a wave of his hand and lit all the candles in the room with a flash of gold.

There was a lot of research to be done if he was going to find a way to destroy the Dark One once and for all. Merlin found himself almost looking forward to it; it'd be like he was back in Camelot again. Invigorated, he used his magic to pull books from their shelves. He must have been a little too invigorated, though, because one of them ended up smacking him in the back of the head. It seemed this would be just like he was back in Camelot then.

* * *

HARRY

Harry was not having a good day at work. First, he gets a frantic Patronus from Hermione asking if has anything or knows of anyone that has anything that could stop flesh from sizzling and bubbling and turning colors. So he asked around for a while with no results only to be interrupted as he got a call that someone managed to dig up a dark artifact in their basement. When he arrived there, apparently the house owner accidentally activated the artifact and it swapped their limbs with parts pieces of furniture in the room, which wouldn't have been so bad except one of them was a plant that became their leg. Then, when he finally dealt with that mess, Hermione informed him that she had already found a solution to her problem and didn't need him anymore. And just when he thought he could come back and take a break at his desk, he was hit with… well, he didn't really know.

"There's a sudden increase of dark magic?" Harry asked as Neville told him as he walked back into the office after wasting time not finding a solution to Hermione's problem.

"Yeah, word was just passed around," Neville confirmed, looking up from one of the reports on his desk.

"What does that even mean?"

"Don't know, no one does. There's never been anything like this before."

"Never?"

"There have been little spikes before, when previous Dark Lords were at their peak, but nothing on this scale before. The trouble is, it can't be pinpointed. The closest we can get is that it's concentrated in London somewhere."

"I suppose they'll want us to patrol the area then. Who's got first shift?"

"You," Neville replied with a none too innocent grin on his face. Harry swatted at him, but missed as Neville ducked away in time. "Good luck, Harry."

Harry rolled his eyes in annoyance, but went to get his battle robes anyway. Even if a sudden increase in dark magic didn't make any sense, it was his job as an Auror to go investigate it anyway and report back. He was thankful he renewed the charms on his robes recently; it wouldn't do to go on patrol and get taken out because his charms were weak.

Actually, he could make this kind of fun and still do his job. Excited by his own idea, Harry took out his bag and rummaged around until he found his Firebolt 4000 and invisibility cloak. After Sirius bought him his first Firebolt, he'd continued to buy all the new ones they came out with in his honor. Plus, they were really fast.

Harry mounted the broom and threw the cloak over his shoulders and brought the hood up. He cast a quick charm so the hood would stay on as he flew, practically second nature to him by now, and took off through the skies of London.

After flying through the air for an hour, he came to stop on a rooftop to think of a better idea than flying around aimlessly. He had half expected to see or feel a mass of dark energy as he flew around, but there was nothing. It was just the same city that it always had been. How could the energy be everywhere in London and he not feel a thing?

As he let his mind wander, the sound of sirens from the streets of London below reached his ears. With nothing else to do, Harry watched the scene below him. A car was crumpled up on a streetlamp, ambulances scattered around the scene and paramedics gathered around what Harry assumed was the driver as they laid him on the street. Even from this distance, it was obvious to Harry that they were trying to bring him back to life, but it didn't seem to be working. Harry was about to get back to work when something, or rather someone, caught his eye.

Standing against a streetlamp across the street was a blonde haired woman in a red jacket and jeans. Ordinarily, this would not have aroused his suspicions, but she was leaning so casually against the streetlamp as she watched the proceedings as others either observed casually while walking away or were watching the scene with intense concentration, praying that the driver would live. It almost looked as if she was waiting for them to die…

Harry was so lost in thoughts about the woman that he nearly missed it when the paramedics all stepped away from the man, silently declaring him dead. He instantly swiveled his head back to the woman and found that she was gone. Quickly, he scanned the surrounding area, trusting his eyes that had scanned the Quidditch pitch for the Snitch for 6 years at Hogwarts, but she was gone. He hopped on the broom, still invisible to the world and flew down to the streetlamp she was at. If she was a witch, her disappearance could have been explained as Apparition, but there were very few witches and wizards that dressed as muggles, and even fewer who would chance performing magic in front of muggles.

So, she was most likely a muggle criminal who had somehow orchestrated that man's death. As an Auror, he had no business dealing with muggle criminals. Surely she would be caught by the muggle police soon. Surely she was just some ordinary muggle criminal and not… what? The next Dark Lord? Harry shook his head to rid himself of the thought. It wouldn't do to see potential Dark Lords everywhere, making up enemies for him to fight. Still, with all this dark magic in the air, he would at least be on the alert for her, include her in his report as… a suspicious bystander? Yes, the strange and suspicious blonde bystander.

* * *

Well, that's where I'm going to end the chapter. I wanted to use this chapter to show the world I was creating and how things were going to fit together. Most chapters will be little snippets from each character like this. With 3 different fandoms going on, if I spent a whole chapter with one person, we'd start losing touch with them at some point.

So how'd you think of it so far? I have a lot of schemes in place and so do these characters! Next chapter, we'll see what Emma's been up to now that she's the Dark One, take a look into what Elaine's thinking (some of you might figure out who she is), and I don't know who the last one will be. Maybe Merlin again, maybe I'll make the other 2 longer, I'll see how it goes.

Please follow/review/favorite if you like it!


	2. Sail

So, as I write this, I have a total of one review! Thank you! And thanks to everyone that followed it as well, I appreciate that a lot. With the new season of Once Upon a Time, I wanted to push forward with this as much as I could. So, here is the next chapter!

Spoilers for all 3 fandoms up to end of HP (follows the books), end of Merlin, and end of season 4 for OUAT.

Summary: Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D

Chapter 2: Sail

* * *

EMMA

Emma was… torn. Quite literally actually. She was only in partial control of her body, at a constant war for control of her thoughts and actions. It was a weird sensation, trying to divide what were hers and what were… the Dark One's. It manifested as a second voice in her head, smooth and charismatic, like a songbird. The voice felt like hers, but also felt like it belonged to someone else. Like when you do something without thinking about it and suddenly realize what happened. It scared her that if her concentration slipped for a second, the darker side of her would take over and she wouldn't even realize it until it was too late.

The even scarier part was that she was starting to think she didn't care.

The more she learned about this new environment the Dark One had led her to, the more she couldn't help but agree. It was shocking at first to learn that magic had existed in England with no one noticing, but after a day or so of interacting with them, she got used to it. And then she began to interact with them personally in small doses, learning about their history, their culture, their horrendous fashion. Seriously? The pointed hat and robes were a thing? The brooms she admitted were cool after watching people fly around on them for some demonstrations. She learned that they indeed used wands to control their magic and could do way more advanced things than she had ever thought possible. Charms to make things bigger on the inside? What was this, Doctor Who? It was England though, so maybe…

All in all, touring magical England, more specifically London, provided Emma a perfect distraction and middle ground between her wants and the Dark One's. The Dark One wanted nothing more than to go to Storybrooke and get the dagger somehow. Conning, threatening, hurting… Emma wouldn't let herself though. She would hold steadfast to not going near her family if she could help it. She wanted to go find Merlin, wherever he may be, but the Dark One seemed to be strongly against that. Every time Emma tried to even think about it, she got a splitting headache from someone screaming in absolute terror in her head. So she gave up on that quickly. London seemed to be the middle ground choice for her.

Emma also realized quickly, whether it was her thoughts or the Dark One's influence, that the magical situation in England was awful. Witches and wizards lived in the shadows, hiding themselves from the world. It was like an awful, twisted game for them. How best to be as magical as possible and yet never be found. They hid as if they were ashamed of their magic, when they were clearly more powerful than those without. They should have every right to practice magic freely and without fear of persecution. Emma had been so afraid of her own power and what her family would think of her, and it had almost destroyed her; no one else should have to live with that kind of fear.

And since she could neither go home nor to Merlin, Emma decided to stay in England and remedy this situation. Even without the Dark One's power, she was powerful enough on her own to help these people. Emma was the Savior and these people needed her help. Even if they didn't know it yet.

So, Emma thought up a plan. Maybe it wasn't the best plan, she never really was the planning kind of person, but she tried her best. It didn't help that she wasn't allowed to hurt anyone. Not that she wanted to hurt anyone. But to be restricted like that… what if she needed to defend herself or someone else? No, she could do this without hurting people.

At least, that was her initial thought.

"This isn't working," Emma nearly growled as she let her head drop back on a chair. After arriving in London, the Dark One quickly erected a house for them, fully furnished and stocked with enough magic books to rival Merlin's library. Not that Emma knew how many books Merlin might have, but she imagined a lot of them, full of powerful sorcery or something. Either way, Emma wasn't going to complain about having a nice bed to sleep in and a kitchen to cook with.

"Well of course not, you need my help," the Dark One replied in her mind, but Emma liked to imagine the Dark One as a powerful sorceress, kind of like Regina. The voice seemed a little more feminine, but definitely reminiscent of Evil Queen Regina. So she closed her eyes and pretended there was another person in the room with her.

"I don't need your help."

"You like this house, though, don't you?"

"I admit, the house is nice, but really, I can do this."

"You have no magical training and no knowledge of magic or magic spells. You've never had a teacher before, and without one, you'll just sit here and open random books like a chimpanzee."

Emma opened her mouth to protest before she realized that she had been doing just that for the past few hours.

"Face it, you need me. I won't even use magic, just point you in the right direction. I can be very patient when I want to be." Emma didn't really like how that sounded, but with no other reasonable options, she gave in.

"Fine, point me in the right direction."

Emma could almost see the self satisfied smirk on the Dark One, shivers running up her spine at the thought of listening to this madness. But she wanted to help these people. Was her reluctance to use her powers a good enough reason to let these people live their lives in fear? As she gave in to dark magic, the book she wanted called out to her. She opened her eyes and saw that a few of the books were glowing now, beckoning her to read through them.

Unsurprisingly, the books contained exactly what she would need to make her plan work. And, this being the Dark One's house, she had all the ingredients she needed on hand. Emma was making charms, enchanted to prevent the loss or modification of memories by magical means in a certain area. Emma's plan was to hand them out to non magical people. If she got enough people to place them in their home, they could cover most of London. Once London was covered, Emma could start handing them out to other cities and expand it until all of England was covered. She would also make them untraceable and invisible to magic eyes, a few more enchantments that would take some time, but be worth it in the end. Like this, the witches and wizards would be forced to reveal themselves and come to some kind of resolution with muggles.

"You can't just hand them out to people," the Dark One said as Emma soaked her charms in rat blood, lead pieces, and… some kind of eyeball. Some kind of reptile the Dark One said would work as a substitute for dragon eyes. Yes, she found the concoction incredibly unsettling, but if it would work…

"Why not? Once I get rid of the smell they won't be so bad."

"If you do it that way, they'll drain your magic from you constantly. Which is fine when you're using 10 of them, but since you're planning on expanding, you might want a more long term solution."

"And I'm guessing you have a suggestion…?" Emma prompted.

"Why of course. I wouldn't tell you that you're doing something wrong without some form of advice."

Emma made a face clearly saying "get on with it," which was a little weird since her eyes were closed. The Dark One laughed then, laughter that was both evil and charming, almost seductive in a weird way.

"Make a deal with them. Grant a wish of theirs and request that they place your charm in their house. That way, since they're not magical, the charm has no choice but to feed off the earth, sparing you from the exhaustion."

"Does that hurt the earth or upset the balance or something?" Emma questioned as she opened her eyes so she could stir her… concoction 3 times.

"Oh, I'm sure he can handle it." Emma wanted to question why the Dark One referred to the earth as a man, but then her charms started bubbling to the surface and she had to pluck them out with reinforced tongs before they started melting.

Then everything went downhill. Emma started granting requests and handing over her charms. The requests started innocent at first, helping someone look for a lost earring or repairing shoes. But as she helped people, rumors spread of a woman who grants wishes and people got greedy. She wants to be thinner, he wants better hair, they want to win the game. And as Emma helped them, she became less and less herself. The more she used dark magic, the more it ruled her thoughts, her personality, her voice.

The last straw was when she helped someone engineer their boss' murder. The boss had been embezzling funds from the company for quite some time, and when the man confronted him about it, he threatened to fire him and prevent him from getting another job. When he said he would just take it to the police then, the man threatened his family. So he came to Emma, begging for her help. She was hesitant at first, but something about the man's plea resonated with her. How his boss abused his position of authority like that. And so as Emma watched from the sidewalk the man's boss crash his car, she felt nothing. No guilt. No sadness. Just an inkling that justice was served.

When Emma retired to the mansion later that night, she realized she didn't have to close her eyes to see the Dark One anymore. She just had to look in a mirror. And what she saw there made her smirk in triumph. The Dark One was back where she belonged.

* * *

ELAINE

Elaine was just about fed up with everything. Life in Storybrooke was easy enough for her. All she had to do was run her shop and buy food and wait for Emma to become the Dark One. Everything after that was already set in stone; she would find the ingredients necessary, put them together and cast the spell. She already knew the ingredients and a general idea of where to find them. And her life before Storybrooke was that of a queen where she had servants who waited on her needs. She never claimed she had a difficult life before.

But now, now she wanted to claim just that.

"And this is what you call camping?" Elaine asked as she carried a large backpack full of clothes, food, blankets and other necessities. Their first item for the spell were flying seahorses, found in Scotland. Elaine would have preferred to just buy the seahorse, but for the spell to work, they needed one with a crimped wing. And no one would sell a flying seahorse with a crimped wing, much to her displeasure.

"This is hiking," Snow clarified, bringing Elaine back to the present.

"If this is hiking, what has camping become?"

"Camping is when you set up tents and collect firewood and sit around a campfire," Henry answered.

Sure, Elaine had heard of camping before, usually in the phrasing "setting up camp," but she had never done it. Her version of camping involved horse drawn carriages and luxury tents and many many guards. Hiking wasn't even a word in her dictionary.

"I know, we had to get used to it, too," Charming told her as he walked up beside her, giving her a friendly and reassuring smile. Elaine had to admit that she quite liked him; his name fit him to a tee. From his manners, to his handsome face, to the way he dressed, charming seemed like the perfect word. Pity that he was already taken. Not that Elaine had anything against Snow White, she was cute in her own way and had a motherly personality, both soft yet strong. Elaine had to give a certain amount of respect to her. That didn't stop her from stealing looks at Prince Charming.

"Of course," Elaine replied, giving him a small smile.

Her eyes drifted off ahead of her and caught sight of Regina and Robin. Another happy couple that no one could shake. Was the enchanted forest such a magical place that everyone just found their loves automatically? It had taken Elaine at least four failed marriages before she found the love of her life. And even then, she lost him to war far too soon for her liking. One of the few future events that she wasn't able to see through prophecy and prevent.

Lost in her thoughts as she was, she missed the root in front of her and ended up tripping over it. She felt pain in her ankle flare up signaling a twisted ankle and sucked in a breath to try and stifle it. Immediately, she had everyone at her side and ready to help her, but she held up a hand to stop them. As miserable as she was, a queen never let her emotions get the best of her or show on her face.

"I am fine, I just twisted my ankle a bit."

"You can't walk on a twisted ankle," Snow instantly protested, the rest of her family (and what a strange family they were) nodding along.

"I have traveled under worse circumstances," Elaine replied easily. Which was true, she was severely pregnant one time and went into labor while traveling, but she also wasn't walking then.

"Oh move over, I'll fix it up," Regina said, stopping their argument before it could become one. Elaine wisely kept her mouth shut and watched as Regina let her hands hover over her ankle, a white glow spreading across them. It only took a few moments before Regina pulled away and Elaine could no longer feel the pain. She rolled her ankle experimentally and found that yes it was healed. In her time, healing magic never quite progressed that far to heal internal injuries. Minor scrapes were healed easily enough with the right incantation, and many things were cured with potions, but pure magic used for healing was difficult to wield. It was only then that Elaine realized how powerful this woman was.

She would have to take great care to ensure that she remained on her side.

"Better?" Regina asked, staring at her intently. She must be used to people lying and saying that everything is fine when they are still in pain; it made Elaine smile a little bit.

"Yes, I believe so."

"Good! There's still a long way to go before we reach the Black Lake, according to this map, and we want to get at least another 10 miles before sundown," Snow announced and began to lead the way again. It took all Elaine had not to groan in exasperation. Such goody two shoes people got on her nerves more than she would admit, but she needed to keep them occupied and motivated. If any of them realized what she was trying to do and what she was preventing them from doing, things could go very badly.

So for now, Elaine would play along. She was nothing if not a tremendous actress and she'd be damned if she let her plans fall to ruin because she couldn't pull herself together and… hike.

"Let's go then," Elaine said and pulled up a genuine smile for the rest of the group. She took comfort in the fact that Henry seemed to resent hiking as much as she did. At least she wasn't the only miserable one.

* * *

NEVILLE

Neville was pretty content with his life. He loved his job, even if it stressed him out sometimes. It felt great to be able to protect everyone and continue fighting the dark arts. Hannah couldn't be a better wife and he loved living above the Leaky Cauldron with her. Since so many people passed through there on their way to Diagon Alley, he got to see many of his friends and meet a lot of new people. So, yes, Neville was feeling pretty good about his life.

Well, there was the sudden increase in dark magic from a week and a half ago with no real cause that anyone could find and the sudden inability to obliviate any muggles, (this was his first morning off since then) but not even that could bring Neville's good mood down. Admittedly, he was feeling pretty down about it until his moondew plant started flowering. The normal moondew plant doesn't have any flowers, but Neville learned from a store owner in Diagon Alley that it used to have flowers and he began his quest to bring them back. It took him several months and a lot of patience, but when he checked on it this morning, one of the buds he was nurturing finally bloomed.

"Hannah! Hannah!" Neville nearly yelled in his excitement, throwing their bedroom door open.

"Hn, what is it? Is it 6 yet?" Hannah mumbled from their bed. Neville felt only a little bad about waking her up earlier than her alarm, but he was too excited about his discovery.

"No, but my moondew plant finally sprouted flowers!" Neville exclaimed, sitting down on the bed beside her, bouncing it a little bit. Neville watched as Hannah rolled over, blinking a few times to try and wake up more and process what he said.

"That's wonderful honey," Hannah said, pulled him in for a kiss, and then collapsed on the bed and fell asleep. Neville stared at her for a moment, temporarily stunned, before he broke out into a wide grin. He really did love her, weird quirks and all. But she wasn't into herbology as much as he was. There was someone that was, though.

Still overly excited, Neville grabbed his plant and ventured into Diagon Alley. He cast a few charms on it to help it keep the conditions around it the same, it was a sensitive plant after all, and navigated his way to his favorite shop. He found it a few years ago when he was taking a stroll through Diagon Alley. It caught his attention because it carried the mortaeus flower, which was said to be impossible to find.

"Leo! The moondew plant sprouted flowers!" Neville announced as he opened the shop door. He was disappointed to find it empty though; usually Leo was at the desk or warded the door to keep people out.

"One second!" Neville heard Leo call out from the back. That was unusual, Leo usually locked the door when he was working on something. Said that he kept dangerous plants back there and didn't want unsuspecting customers wandering in the front door and back there to find him.

As Neville waited for Leo, he heard a loud crash come from the back. Neville called out to Leo, but received no reply back. Cautiously, he crept to the back door. Should he enter and try to help? As an Auror and a semi-expert herbologist, he felt fully qualified to handle whatever might be back there. And Leo could be in real trouble. Neville would feel awful if he could have helped and didn't and Leo ended up seriously injured because of it.

Cautiously, Neville opened the door to the back, but instead of the greenery he expected, he found himself in a hallway. He didn't see Leo or any obviously opened door, so he turned to the first one on his left and opened it to find… another hallway. Letting out a sigh, Neville was about to turn around and try another when he saw a picture on one of the doors. It was some trees, drawn on a simple piece of parchment with all the skill of a five year old. Across from that door was another drawing in the same crude manner, but of a large star. As he looked, Neville confirmed that all the doors had some crude picture on them; a yellow road and a green house, a playing card, a black and white house, a red M, a black DC, and more.

Neville would have liked to continue down the hall more, but then he heard a crash come from the hallway and he rushed back into it, taking out his wand on instinct. In the hallway was a golden speck of light, resembling a Snitch in flight in many ways, but without the distinctive sound of wings flapping. Curious as to what it was, Neville moved to take a step closer before he heard Leo yell out to him.

"Close your mouth and nose!" Leo called out as he burst through one of the doors on the right and into the hallway. At this, the light darted towards Neville, but he quickly followed Leo's instructions and the light instead made to fly past him.

"Oh no you don't, you stupid annoying little-" Leo said, his tone the most frustrated Neville had ever heard it. Neville turned to look at the light again, and watched as it froze in mid-air right before the front door of the shop. And then it turned into a creature Neville had only seen in history books; an old relative of the goblins, a species that Neville was certain had died out a long time ago. Stunned that such a thing still existed, he turned back to see Leo holding the thing in mid-air with his hand up and his eyes locked on it. And then Leo whispered under his breath and a box flew from the room he had just left to his vacant hand. Neville tried to get a glimpse of what the box was, but then Leo threw it towards the light and Neville stared transfixed as the box swallowed the light up, closed itself, and then landed neatly on the front desk.

Neville slowly turned to stare open mouthed at Leo. He had just done all of that wandless, and didn't even look phased by it. Wandless. Perhaps Dumbledore could have done things like that, but Neville was pretty sure that no one alive was capable of such a feat. Except now Leo. How much did he train to do that, and more importantly, was he really Neville's age? Not even Hermione, the brightest witch he knew his age, was that good. Not even close. Who the heck was Leo that he could do wandless magic like that?

"Sorry about that, I was looking for a book and it got out. Did you- oh is that the moondew plant you were working on!?" Neville really wanted to ask more about the creature that Leo had just captured and how he did all of it wandless no less, but his excitement for his breakthrough overrode everything else. Neville could admit that his love for herbology sometimes blocked out his common sense. It was a problem of his that he would work on as soon as he figured out how to grow mugwort underwater.

"Yeah! One of the buds bloomed this morning. I thought you would want to see it," Neville explained as he twisted the plant around to show Leo better. Leo leaned in closer to inspect it, and Neville could see the excitement on his face and in the bounce of his foot. He was like a child looking at the newest broomstick in store and Neville had to stifle a laugh at the imagery.

"This is amazing! No seriously, you have some real talent for herbology. Ever thought of doing it as a career?" Leo said as he backed away from the plant and assumed a normal speaking distance.

"No, I like my auror career, thanks… was that an ancient goblin by the way?" Neville was able to ask now that the plant excitement died down. Leo's expression abruptly changed at his question, the previous excitement replaced by a look of apprehension as his eyebrows crinkled together and his mouth tightened up. But the expression lasted only a fraction of a second before his face melted into his normal carefree and goofy smile.

"Yeah, I knocked the box over as I was looking for a book in my library and it got out. Forgot it was even in the box, though I've been warned countless times that it was dangerous and not to open it." Neville knew how that felt with all the ways he's tried to keep track of things and how they've never worked.

"I know what you mean," Neville said while the statement sunk in, "Wait, you have a library here?"

"Oh, yeah," Leo replied as he scratched the back of his neck sheepishly. Neville tried to read his mannerisms better, but couldn't decide whether Leo seemed embarrassed or proud of his library. It almost seemed like it was a project of his he'd been working on a long time and was proud of, but thought others would laugh at him for. Maybe Neville should take a look at it then, encourage him.

"Could I see it?"

"Oh, there's nothing in there, really. Just a bunch of old books I've collected over the years…"

"Leo. I'm sure it's an awesome collection." That seemed to get the reaction he was hoping for as Leo broke out into his grin again, and, after a moment's hesitation, relented and motioned for Neville to follow him. He also magicked the box with the goblin in it to his hand, again wandless. Neville was starting to wonder if he even owned a wand, but all words died in his throat when Leo opened the door to the library.

The library was enormous and Neville was sure it broke the bounds that normal expanding charms had on them. 4 stories high, the library looked to be the size of the great hall at Hogwarts in floor area. The shelves themselves were like a maze, with no discerning pattern to them and made out of entirely different materials. To his left on the ground, the shelves seemed impossibly old, older than Hogwarts Neville was sure and the books seemed to match them, covered in cobwebs. On his right, there were metal shelves with some of the biggest tomes Neville had ever seen, things even Hermione wouldn't call light reading. And then above him for 3 floors, the books rode around on little trains of shelves, with staircases that wound between them, very reminiscent of the stairs at Hogwarts. And if that weren't enough, books were crammed into every nook and cranny on the walls as if the shelves molded around the books in their attempt to fit as many as possible.

Neville couldn't find the words to say how impressed and awestruck he was.

"It's a little much, isn't it? It just got away from me over the years," Leo mumbled.

"A little bit," Neville admitted, "but it's also… absolutely incredible," Neville said as he turned to Leo and beamed at him. Leo seemed to take this as his cue that everything was okay and the tension Neville saw in his shoulders and face softened to his normal happy expression.

"Thanks," Leo said as he walked down the aisles, Neville following behind him. Despite the high walls and quick turns every few seconds, Leo seemed to know exactly where he was going.

"So, what made you want to build a library like this?" Neville asked as he examined a passing shelf. The words on the spine of the books weren't even in English here; they looked more like Gaelic or something. Did Leo even read these or just collect them?

"Oh, it's something my uh family has been doing for a long time. Which is why it's so chaotic. Everyone just kinds of adds sections as the years go by," Leo explained as they continued their trip. Neville nodded along, inspecting another shelf on the other side that looked like a collection of fairy tales, at least from their titles. They weren't any that he's heard of before, but "Jack and the Giant Beanstalk" didn't seemed like a true story. Even if it could theoretically happen. Actually, growing a plant like that would be-

And Neville let his thoughts get away from him as he pondered how he would make a giant beanstalk. Beans were a well known magical object, with properties anywhere from healing to making portkeys. And then Leo took a turn and they ended up back in the section Neville had seen at the beginning with all the really old books. Leo was putting the goblin box up on the shelf, muttering a few charms as he did, when Neville spotted an open book on the ground.

Curious, he picked it up and found that it was a book of what he could only see as dark magic. Page after page of old rituals that the wizarding community banned centuries ago. Maybe even the one used to revive You-Know… Voldemort (the name still caused him to shudder a bit) was in there. And it was lying open in Leo's library. As questions started bubbling up in Neville's head about why Leo would have this in the first place, what the heck he was reading it for, and who he really was, he decided to go for the simplest one.

"Were you looking through this when the box fell?" Leo turned around to see what book he meant and for a second his face went to that dark expression again. It was so strange to see that so often today, like Neville had decided to visit on an off day and every other time had been a good day or something. Well, it was like 5 in the morning, but still. Neville had thought he knew Leo fairly well, but now he realized that there was a whole side to him that he knew nothing about. Wandless magic and dark rituals. But then Leo was looking at him like a child whose parents just found he'd been stealing biscuits before dinner and nothing made sense anymore.

"Uh… yeah, it looked interesting so…" Leo trailed off uncertainly, his eyes drifting downwards, looking anywhere but at Neville. Which was weird, because that was usually his thing when he was lying.

"Leo," Neville cut off his explanation, "we both know you're lying. Why were you reading this book?" Leo sighed and Neville watched as he took a moment to gather his thoughts before he spoke again.

"It's complicated."

"Okay…"

"And dangerous."

"I'm an auror. Fighting against the dark arts and other dangerous things is my job description."

"Not like this. You've never fought anything like this before." Which was saying something to Neville because Leo knew he fought in the battle at Hogwarts. So this was something even worse than Voldemort? Something darker than one of the darkest wizards? And then it hit Neville.

"The sudden increase in dark magic…"

"What?" Leo nearly demanded, his eyes turning hard onto Neville. Neville nodded slowly in response as he made the connections.

"A week or so ago, there was a sudden influx of dark magic. But when we tried to trace it, we couldn't pinpoint the source to anything narrower than London. Is this what you're talking about?"

"So even you can sense it…" Leo mumbled and Neville was sure that Leo hadn't meant for him to hear it.

"Yeah, we did. So this is what you're… researching?" And then a sudden sense of dread filled Neville. What if Leo was the cause of it and he had just made the biggest mistake of his life by finding out about it, what if-

"There's something I should tell you. About me. But I really don't want the whole wizarding community finding out about it." This was it, Neville thought. Somehow, Neville had been completely wrong about him and Leo wasn't the good guy he had always thought. He was going to ask him to join his dark quest and Neville would have to or he'd threaten Hannah and his other friends… No he should give him a chance to explain himself. Everything he knew about him previously suggested that he was good, always willing to help and do the right thing. But the whole wandless thing and dark rituals kind of freaked him out…

"I'm telling you because I trust you and I know you're a good guy. You really are the embodiment of Gryffindor, right down to the propensity to stick your neck into everything. Will you hear me out? I… haven't told anyone in a long time, I'm so used to keeping my secrets, and I'm really bad at asking for help, but… I need it this time."

Neville didn't trust his mouth to say anything, his head was still spinning with all this new information, so he nodded his head. Leo was right; he was a Gryffindor. He would face this with all the bravery that being a part of that house asked of him. So he braced himself for the news, whatever it would be he would handle it.

"I'm Merlin. Like, the warlock who served under King Arthur, Merlin." And with a great whooshing wind, Leo aged into the face that Neville had seen a caricature of many times on chocolate frogs. With no wand. And no incantation. The magic that surged that air was almost palpable and Neville felt it singing in his core. There was no doubt in his mind. Leo really was the Merlin from legend, only he could have so much power. So Neville did what any person would do in his shoes.

He promptly fainted.

* * *

Whew! This one took a while to get done, and even then most of it wrote itself against my will. Like Neville. Who wasn't really going to have any place in this story, but he decided that he should. Because really, he and Merlin would totally be BFFs if Merlin had a shop in diagon alley. And Neville is a good person, which Merlin can definitely see, and he does need help. Especially if that someone is an auror who might be able to get them to help. Win win situation.

And this was much longer than I intended. I even thought that this was going to be short. I blame Neville. He took over the latter half of this. But I love Neville so I can't stay mad at him for long.

Kudos to anyone who can tell me why I named Merlin Leo (There's 2 reasons, so double kudos if you can get both!) And by kudos I mean cookies. Otis Spunkmeyer cookies cause they're delish.

Please follow/review if you like it!


	3. Friend or Foe

I know this has been a while. New job and moving and stuff. But here it is! Hope you all enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Spoilers for all 3 fandoms up to end of HP (follows the books), end of Merlin, and end of season 4 for OUAT.

Summary: Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Neville, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D

Chapter 3: Friend or Foe

* * *

HARRY

Harry was stressed. More stressed than the TriWizard Tournament, the Auror test, confronting Voldemort, or anything else he could think of. He didn't think it was possible, but apparently it was. He had naively thought that nothing could be worse than the Second Wizarding War. The mass torturing of muggles he was sure would be their darkest time. But this, this might just be worse.

England itself was in chaos, and the rest of the world would quickly be following suit. It had started innocently enough, a few obliviates hadn't worked and they were able to simply explain it away or convince them it was a dream. But lately, obliviate wasn't working at all. Every once in a while, someone managed to succeed, but by now, the Internet already exploded with rumors and pictures of witches and wizards. Fortunately, most of the world was used to England's overactive imagination; seriously, they cried aliens every other week, so they were skeptical of them for now. But after enough time, the rest of world would be forced to believe that magic was real.

The Ministry of Magic was working overtime trying to hide all the witches and wizards and get them information on how to blend in more, but Harry knew it was only a matter of time. Soon, the muggles would demand that they show themselves and the Prime Minister wouldn't be able to hold them back. Political pressure is scary no matter where you are. And that was probably one of the better outcomes.

At worst, the muggles would resort to war first without trying to solve it peacefully and try to eradicate all magic users. Harry hoped it never came to that.

The best would be to find what the heck prevented obliviate from working in the first place, which unfortunately fell on his desk.

"Hermione, I need your help," Harry whined as he opened the door to Hermione's office.

"No," Hermione responded without even looking up from her paperwork, her eyes scanning through them quickly before she sorted them into the accept or reject piles.

"I'm not asking for help with homework here, it's for my job."

"All the more reason you should be qualified to handle it."

"I tried, Hermione, I tried, but this is really your area of expertise," Harry watched Hermione roll her eyes before he continued, "and I know you're dying to do something that isn't paperwork."

Hermione pretended to think about it for a minute, but Harry knew that she'd already given in. So he took the moment to look around her office, just in case she changed something. But no, her office was as pristine as usual, every book on her shelf sorted first by category and then by author alphabetically. Her quills and ink sat on the top right corner of her desk, a small box in front of it with paperwork she hasn't looked at yet. Harry couldn't see them because they faced Hermione, but he knew that the pictures on the desk showed her parents, Ron and their kids, and then a bunch of people from Hogwarts all gathered together at the end of the Second Wizarding War. In a photo album at home, she had more pictures, but many of them contained people who had passed away and Harry knew looking at them upset her. It upset him, too.

"Oh, alright," Hermione huffed as she put her quill down and looked up to face him, "what are you trying to do?"

"Track down the source of whatever is preventing oblivate from working."

"So it's true?!" Hermione gasped.

"I'm afraid so. We quickly ruled out user error after multiple people experienced it, and it spread too quickly for it to be individual enchantment blocks. We tried to find the source, but I'm not sure what we're looking for. I looked through many books, but couldn't find any accounts of someone enchanting many people or an area at once against a specific spell like this. So, I came to the smartest witch I know," Harry concluded, giving her the best smile he could manage.

"Well, there are a few spells that can block other spells, anti-jinx being one of them, but either they only work on a single object or require much too long to have spread this fast. I don't think whoever this is is going around individually jinxing people either. If they used so many people to do it, muggles would be way more terrified of magic than they are."

"What does that mean?" Harry asked, even though he knew where this was going.

"It means," and here Hermione's expression turned into a grimace, "they're using some pretty dark and ancient magic."

"So they're powerful, too."

"Yes…" Hermione said as her focus on the conversation tapered off and her eyes began to roam her bookshelf. All at once, she stood from her chair, marched over to the shelf and pulled a book seemingly at random before flipping through it. Harry watched in amazement as her eyes zoomed across each page in a millisecond before jumping to the next one. And then she stopped.

"I bet anything they're using a more powerful version of this," Hermione pointed as Harry moved to stand beside her and read over her shoulder.

"A Memory Potion? But that's-"

"Obliviate doesn't get rid of memories, it just buries them deep in the mind. This could actually give someone access to those memories."

"Wouldn't the muggles realize if their memory just suddenly got better though?"

"Which is why I bet they're using dark magic to manipulate it, but since it's not a spell they're casting on every person, it has to be some kind of potion. At the very least, it has to be using Jobberknoll feathers as an ingredient to manipulate memory. There's really no other ingredient, even ancient ones, quite as powerful as that…"

"Wait, is it possible to search for that? For traces of it anyway?" Harry asked as the idea sprang to his mind.

"Ooh yes! Yes there is! Oh, Harry that's a great idea. I'm surprised I didn't think of it," Hermione mused as she already moved to her shelf to find another book to help them.

"Can't let you do all the work here," Harry replied with a grin. Hermione rolled her eyes good naturedly and the two of them got to work on finding a spell that could detect the presence of Jobberknoll feathers.

"And you came up with this idea, not her?" Ron asked as they walked down a London road on their search for the Jaberknoll feathers.

"Yeah, I was surprised, too."

"Blimey, we might be getting smarter after all."

"Well, one of us at least," Harry countered and Ron shoved him. Harry flashed him a grin, but then his wand started flashing.

"We've got a hit!" Ron cheered. Harry sort of shrugged and then kept moving in the same direction as the wand increased in brightness and stopped when it started to dim. Hermione had twisted the spell around a little to give them a hot cold indicator instead of just a yes no. She then taught it to the whole department, an amusing lesson Harry would remember for a while, and the whole department was out sweeping the town. If they found nothing in a few days, they would give up and try a new approach. Luckily for them, Harry finally got a hit.

"So we try this house then?" Ron suggested with a head nod to his right. Harry nodded back and Ron performed a spell to check if anyone was in the house. Seeing that no one was home, they gingerly went through the front door.

Harry walked slowly, scanning each room with his wand until he entered one and his wand lit up to the point of nearly blinding him and Ron.

"What are we trying to look for?" Ron asked, shielding his eyes from Harry's wand.

"I dunno, anything suspicious. When you find something, tap it to my wand. If it contains Jobberknoll feathers, the light will go out."

"Oh, so some actual motivation to find it then, great. If only it didn't blind me in the process." Harry rolled his eyes but proceeded to walk around the room tapping random objects with his wand. The room was some kind of non-room where there were lots of shelves full of objects, but no tables or couches to sit on. It was like this room was meant to display random things from baseballs to pictures to the skeleton of a cat, so Harry felt the need to tap everything just in case. It was Ron who found a little wooden doll behind some books when he fell and knocked them over to regain his balance.

"Well this looks out of place here, hidden away like that," he said as he brought it over to Harry who tapped it with his wand. They both heaved a sigh of relief when the light went out and Harry internally jumped for joy. After everything that had been going wrong recently, it sure was nice for something to go right.

"This thing's kind of freaky," Ron commented holding it up for Harry to see. Indeed, the doll was a wooden figurine that looked like someone only had a vague idea of human. It had a head with two eye sockets and an O-shaped mouth, a longer neck, and its arms and legs were placed correctly but looked identical because neither had hands or feet.

"Let's just take it back to the office and show it to everyone so they know what to look for."

Harry and Ron apparated back to deliver the doll to their department. They showed the doll to the head of their department who told them to print out pictures of it and send it off to the other search teams before resuming their own search. One of the muggle experts even started to spread rumors of the doll on the internet as a cursed object… which it was.

"We should go back to searching now," Harry commented from his desk, propped up on his elbow with no real intention of leaving. With the source of the enchantment figured out, Harry figured he could take a small break.

"Yeah, we should," Ron agreed from his desk, leaning back in the chair and tossing a ball in the air and catching it, "or we could take a break for a few more minutes."

"Yeah…" Harry agreed before he remembered that there was still someone out there orchestrating the whole thing behind the scenes and he resolved himself to go back to work, "On second thought, we should get going."

"But Haaaarry..."

"Ron, we still have to catch whoever is responsible for this," Harry said as he got up and walked out of the office. He heard Ron sigh behind him and knew that he would be right behind him.

"Who do you think is behind it anyway?" Ron asked as he caught up.

"Don't know."

"Oh come on, there has to be someone. I vote for… Malfoy."

"Ron, Malfoy teaches his son to treat muggles with respect. He's not evil."

"Yeah… I still think he's a git." Harry rolled his eyes and went to reply back when he felt a gust of wind come from behind him. He immediately went into battle mode and turned around with his wand already out and pointed, ready to attack whoever it was. He was surprised to find a blonde woman standing there, her arms hanging at her sides and no visible wand. He was even more surprised to realize he knew who this was.

"You're that woman… from the car crash."

"Yes I am, Harry Potter. And I have a message for you, for all of you."

"Were you the one leaving the dolls around England?" Ron asked, his wand also pointed at her. For that matter, Harry noticed in his peripherals that many witches and wizards around him were prepared to do battle if it should come to that.

"Yes."

Immediately, Harry and Ron cast silent spells with their wands, but she simply put up a hand and the spells absorbed into an invisible wall. A few other witches and wizards tried the same thing, but she used both hands to put up a barrier around her and absorb their attacks. Harry could see her brows crease in concentration, but otherwise she wasn't exerting any extra effort. The fact she could use wandless magic like that… she was indeed powerful.

"I didn't want to do this, but…" she said and then Harry saw her eyes glow gold as she incanted, "ætstendeaþ!"

Harry immediately felt his muscles freeze up, like an immobulus charm struck him. He could shift his eyes though, and saw that everyone else in the room was similarly frozen. His heart started to thump as he realized they were all sitting ducks should this woman try to kill them.

"I'm sorry about this, but it's the only way that you'll listen to me. Yes, I put the dolls in all those houses. They're made to negate the effects of obliviate, ensuring that humans remember any magic they see. I do this because I have one strong belief: that magic users should not have to live in fear of muggles."

Harry wanted to say that they don't live in fear of muggles, that they co-exist peacefully, but was prevented by the immobulus charm on him. At least this woman seemed reasonable… no wait, she orchestrated a muggle death in a car crash. She just appears to be reasonable, which may just be worse.

"I know what you're thinking. That what you have right now is fine. But it's not. You live with so many rules over your heads, sheltered away from the world. Don't you want to be free to practice magic however you want? I know of a time when sorcerers lived alongside muggles and they worked together peacefully to make advancements. Yes, they occasionally had their differences, but that's because both sides are human."

"I don't want to hurt muggles, I just want magic to be free again. If you want to join me in this, or just want to know more, say my name 3 times and I'll come to you. My name is… Emma Swan."

And with that, the dropped the immobulus charm and vanished into the wind again. Harry had just enough time to point his wand where she was before she was gone. He cursed himself and nearly threw his wand on the ground in frustration. She was trying to gather followers now, and he knew that people would join her. Her magic was incredibly powerful, much more than Voldemort's even. It was just a matter of time until another war broke out. He was jolted out of his thoughts by Ron's arm slinging over his shoulders.

"So, I guess we're going on another crazy adventure to take down a dark wizard. At least we don't have to worry about curfews this time."

* * *

MERLIN

Merlin was so glad that he learned the teleportation spell soon after Arthur's death. He seriously questioned why he never bothered to learn it before then, it would have made a lot of things easier for him. Still, he knew it now and it sure made things like collecting potion ingredients easier. He had no idea how he would have made it to the Crystal Cave without it. Sure he could walk like he did in Camelot, but with all the new muggle technology, walking seemed so overrated. Despite being hundreds of years old, he always enjoyed the new things people made, magic or muggle. He even had a cell phone that connected to the Internet. Not that he used it very often, but he was getting the hang of "Google."

Merlin hated every minute in the caves, too. He took some crystal that he needed for his potion and left as fast as he could. This place reminded him too much of the Battle of Camlann and losing Arthur. Being trapped in here, unable to do anything to help, just watching the crystals tell him the terrible fate he couldn't prevent. It was awful. So, he didn't rely on the crystals anymore to tell him the future. Instead, he relied on his own instincts that he got from the earth, pushing him to do something or telling him to wait. So far, it's worked out; the world was still in one piece after all.

So, it was with a heavy heart that Merlin exited the cave, only to receive a huge shock as he came across a young woman not too far away. She had long blonde hair, tied back in a low ponytail. Her clothing was simple, some nondescript pants and a short sleeve t-shirt with little hearts. What did surprise Merlin was the number of accessories she had on, a bracelet of little cherries, a long necklace with odd seashells of varying sizes and rainbow earrings. Merlin blinked twice before he realized he was rudely staring and coughed a little to try and brush off the awkwardness. The woman, though, appeared completely unaffected.

"Hello, nice day for a walk, isn't it?" Merlin tried to start a conversation. The woman looked towards him, but not quite at him, as if she was looking into the far off distance right behind his ear. Merlin was about to say something before she interrupted him.

"Yes, the air here feels good." Merlin blinked at her twice, wondering if she someone knew about the Crystal Cave not even 10 feet away. He had as many enchantments on it that he could think of to prevent others from even realizing it existed let alone enter it.

"Why do you say that?"

"No reason. Many animals come by here to rest, but never stay. This place seems to make worries go away. I've been investigating it thinking that maybe tribles live here, but I haven't found any yet."

"Tribles?" Merlin asked, certain that he had never heard of any creature by that name. And he knew a lot of creatures.

"Yes, they bring a sense of peace wherever they go. They like to live in warm areas, so I never looked here, but this is the kind of effect they bring to the area around them."

Merlin nodded his head in understanding, but still had no idea what she was talking about. Was it possible new species grew and he just missed them? Maybe… He was about to ask her more, but then he realized that he never introduced himself.

"Oh, I'm Leo by the way," he said and held out his hand. Her eyes focused on him as he said it and she titled her head to the side, as if trying to understand something. Merlin continued to hold his smile, wondering if she could perhaps sense that he was lying in some way, but then she brushed off whatever it was and accepted the handshake.

"Luna. And Leo isn't your real name, is it?" And that was when Merlin realized who this was. It was one of Harry Potter's friends from Hogwarts, the Ravenclaw who believed in unusual things. Which explains the tribles. But more importantly…

"Why do you say that?"

"Because the animals are whispering a different name to me," Luna said as she put a hand to cup her ear, "it's quite hard to hear, wrackspurts I suspect, but it sounds like… Emrys. Does that name mean anything to you?"

If Merlin wasn't certain that this person wasn't evil, he'd be firing spells at her. Even now, he was tense. Perhaps this was someone else pretending to be Luna, trying to trick him. By nature, he was a suspicious person and this definitely fell into the suspicious category. He didn't want to believe that she was a bad person, but knowing that he's Emrys without him telling her put him on edge.

"The animals?" he instead asked, to see if there was more information to be learned.

"Yes, the magical ones anyway. They all seem to like you. But also fear you. I wonder why," Luna drifted off here and her gaze lingered on some trees in the distance. Merlin was still tense as he tried to process what she was saying. It made sense, many magical creatures recognized him as an entity of the Earth and revered him like one. They usually keep their distance from him unless he calls on them for a specific reason. He just didn't think it was possible for someone else to be that in tune with them. But the more he looked at Luna, the more he could tell just how genuine and honest she was. She wasn't evil or manipulative, wasn't trying to find out who he was. She was just making observations as she saw them.

All at once, Merlin relaxed and allowed himself to feel the earth around him the way she was doing. It was then that she took her gaze away from the woods and fixed it back on him.

"Yes, my true name is Emrys and my birth name is Merlin. I just go by Leo now because it's easier." Luna's eyes went wide for a second, but then she resumed her normal half smile.

"I can see why all the animals like you then."

"Yeah, being a really old sorcerer will do that. But, like you said, they're also afraid of me. And while they'll come to me when I tell them, too, I can tell they're still afraid," Merlin admitted, a little sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Luna tilted her head to the side and her eyes lost focus as she became lost in thought. Instead of interrupting, Merlin decided to wait it out his time. From what he knew of her, she was incredibly smart, and when smart people get an inkling of an idea, it's best to wait them out.

So, Merlin continued watching her even when she came out of her trance and started looking around the area. Then, she riffled through one of her bags, pulled out a glass jar and handed it to Merlin. She took out her wand as well and muttered a quick spell under breath that sent a stream of blue flame into the jar Merlin held. Merlin thought better to say that he could conjure his own fire and instead looked to Luna for more instruction, but she was gazing off into the trees again with her wand aloft and muttering something else under her breath. Sensing nothing immediate about to happen, Merlin sat down on a stump.

He waited there for a few minutes in silence, lost in his own thoughts of what he was supposed to do next when he heard the small fluttering of wings, although it sounded more like laughter the more he heard it. Coming out of the trees were a group of flitterby moths. Never having gotten close enough to properly see one, Merlin stared intently as they flew towards him. He looked back at Luna who made a motion to raise the jar up which Merlin quickly followed.

It wasn't too long after that the flitterby moths made their home around his little jar of flame. Their wings were gorgeous up close, various shade of orange that glowed and dimmed on their own. And yes, now that they were close, their flapping wings indeed mimicked the sound of tinkling laughter as they danced in front of him. In all his years, he had never experienced something like this. It was just so… beautiful.

"Thank you, Luna," Merlin whispered, so as not to disturb the flitterby moths.

"You're welcome, Merlin," Luna responded as she sat down next to him to watch the moths dance, too. Merlin gave her the warmest smile he could manage before a thought struck him. Carefully, he handed the jar back to Luna and reached into one of his many bags to pick out something to give her in return.

"As a thank you, I'd like you to accept this," Merlin said as he revealed a piece of crystal from the crystal cave. It was a small one, about the size of his thumb and not refined, but it would definitely amplify her already impressive magical sense to higher levels. As well as sparkle like no other crystal would, Merlin was sure of that one. Which gave him another idea.

He looked around before he spotted a bare patch of earth. One incantation and a hand wave later, he created a strand of silver that he then looped through the crystal and connected at the ends to form a necklace. He figured that if nothing else, it made the crystal easier to keep track of.

"May I?" he asked to be polite and received a polite if awe struck nod from Luna. He managed to leave Luna Lovegood speechless, imagine that. And so, it was only with a little shyness that he slipped the necklace over her head and let the crystal drop onto her chest.

"I've never seen anything like it," Luna finally offered, unable to come up with anything else to say.

"Well, yes, it's a bit hard to find since I'm the only one who knows where they are. It'll help you concentrate your magical sense better, let you feel the earth more than you already do."

Luna nodded again before she set the jar down and said, "Thank you." Merlin blushed a little at her words, because despite all his years or perhaps because of them, he never felt anything he did was ever really deserving of thanks. So, instead he gave her a big smile and told her that he had to get back to work now. She laughed a little and waved goodbye as he vanished in a gust of wind, his heart significantly lighter.

* * *

HENRY

Henry was suspicious. He didn't really have any evidence of it, but he was positive Elaine was hiding something from them. And not the kind of secret that everyone has, but the one where she is purposefully hiding something from them. However, he lacked his mother's super power for detecting lies and could not pinpoint what it was exactly that she was hiding. Instead, he kept a close eye on her and watched for any opportunity.

They were on their way back from the lake and catching flying seahorses when Henry saw his opportunity. Their journey was taking them on a path through a dense part of the forest where they had to constantly duck and weave just to make it through. It was then that Elaine's bag caught on a branch as she was passing under it and spilled out a few items. Seizing the chance, Henry stepped closer to help her pick things up and came upon a curious looking handheld mirror. He stared at it for a second before picking it up and the second he did a flurry of images ran across it.

There was Elaine saying goodbye to another woman with blonde hair before taking a man's arm and walking away. A picture flashed of a blond haired knight riding on horseback, leading a small group of knights behind him. The picture faded to a dark haired man using magic to protect the blond knight. An image of the blonde woman from earlier and a dark haired woman with curls leading the charge into a kingdom. The dark haired man attacked the blonde woman. The woman with curls cried in anguish as she demanded something of some knights. A bloody battle in a canyon as knights fought with swords, and the blond haired man was struck. The dark haired man killed the woman with curls in a battle of magic. Elaine receiving a letter and one word on her lips as she crushed the paper in rage, "Merlin."

Henry watched these images fly by in an instant, his head reeling from the truth they were showing him. His hand clutched the mirror tightly as he tried to focus in on the world around him again. Right, in the forest, with his mom, Snow, Charming, and Robin Hood.

"Thank you," Elaine said, reaching out her hand for the mirror. Henry gave it to her with a small nod, his brain working furiously now to put the puzzle pieces together.

It didn't make much sense to him, but one message was clear to him, Elaine was no friend to Merlin. And if she wasn't friends with Merlin, then she had to be against him. She was leading them to a trap of some kind. But of what, Henry had no idea. He also didn't know how to bring this up to anyone else. There was little opportunity to do it in secret and an open confrontation seemed like a bad. Perhaps his mom could fight her on equal ground, but if she couldn't, Henry didn't want to risk it. He'd just have to wait for a chance to tell her.

When everyone went to sleep for the night, Henry snuck out of bed and made his way to his mom's sleeping bag with a flashlight, grateful that Elaine's sleeping bag was on the other side of camp. He then proceeded to poke nudge her shoulder whispering, "Mom, mom, wake up," until he heard her stir into wakefulness. After a second of blinking awake, she sat straight up with her hand out, looking around the area as if for enemies before she settled on Henry in front of her.

"What is it, Henry, you should be in bed right now," Regina commented, immediately going into mom mode. Henry resisted the urge to roll his eyes; there were more important things at stake here.

"I know, mom, but I wanted to tell you this while we couldn't be overhead. It's about Elaine, I don't trust her," Henry started, fumbling to get the right words out. Fortunately, his mother waited there patiently for him to gather his thoughts until Henry had everything sorted out in his head.

"I've been suspecting that she was suspicious for a while, just a feeling, but no evidence to prove it. But today, when she tripped and her stuff spilled out, I picked up a mirror for her and… it showed me images. Visions with her and other people in them. I couldn't make all of them out, they moved too fast, but I got from it that she lost a loved one of hers in some kind of medieval battle. And that she blames Merlin for it."

"Merlin?" Regina echoed, disbelief clear in her voice. Henry nodded, knowing that it was weird, but he was sure that's what she had said.

"Yeah, it seemed like the right kind of time period for it. Anyway, if she blames Merlin for losing her loved one and wants revenge against him, don't you think that means she's against us, too? I mean, Merlin's the good guy, right? Maybe she wants to use the dark one's power for herself to get revenge against him, or…" Henry trailed off, knowing that his thoughts were getting away with themselves. He just knew for certain that Elaine had this dark feeling about her and he couldn't shake it off.

"Henry, there's something you should know. While Merlin is a great and powerful person, he has a job to do of keeping things balanced. This means that sometimes, he has to make choices that others don't agree with. Like, preventing a horrendous tragedy by letting a small one happen."

"What? That sounds awful." Henry had no idea that Merlin was like that. To him, Merlin was the good guy, the one who led King Arthur and Camelot to prosperity. He stood for justice and peace and always knew what to do. Henry just never thought that the right thing to do would involve hurting others.

"I know, so maybe this woman ended up on the wrong side of that and blames Merlin for it. We can't jump to conclusions based on a few images you saw."

"It wasn't just that, though, the ones she lost were… dark. I don't think they were trying to do good things," Henry tried to explain. The images he saw also left him with a general impression of the time and the feelings those in it had. The dark haired woman, she gave off nothing but anger and pain, a burning desire to make everyone else feel as she did no matter what. But, without Regina having seen the images the way he did, there was no way to convey that.

"Well, I was about as dark as can be and look how I turned out. If I can change, anyone can. I can't believe I'm saying this but, she deserves a chance. If she threatens or hurts you, though, that chance is gone in an instant," Regina said, her evil queen side shining through just a little bit causing Henry to laugh lightly.

"Thanks, mom."

"Any time, Henry. Now go to bed, it's late and you'll need your energy if you're going to keep an eye on her."

Henry nodded his agreement and tucked himself into his sleeping bag. He didn't want to tell his mom how powerful Elaine could be, she wouldn't believe him anyway. The way they fought with magic in those visions he saw, he didn't think his mother stood a chance if Elaine was as powerful as them. Maybe with his grandparents and Robin Hood they'd stand a chance, but…

And then there was Merlin. Was he the good person Henry always thought he was? Or was he the kind of man who would let others die in front of him when he could have saved them? And if he was, could Henry be okay with that? Was it possible to be that kind of person and still be a good man? Henry knew he would have to decide if it came to that, but right now, all he wanted to do was sleep.

What Henry didn't know was that Elaine had heard their whole conversation. And as Henry drifted peacefully off to sleep, Elaine spent the night concocting a plan to break the group apart.

* * *

So I accidentally deleted most of Henry's part and had to re-write it, but I think it came out better this time. Hopefully. So, now we have Emma making her move in London as the wizarding society scrambles to figure out what they want to do about it, Merlin takes a break as he gathers ingredients, and Henry catches onto Elaine's plan. Which you could probably figure out now. There's lots of hints available to you, as to who she really is, what she's doing back here, and what her end goal is.

So please leave a review telling me what you think she's planning now, who she is, or what her long term goal is. I'd love to see what your thoughts are!


	4. Control

I don't have much to say here, so enjoy the story!

Spoilers for all 3 fandoms up to end of HP (follows the books), end of Merlin, and end of season 4 for OUAT.

Summary: Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Neville, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D

Chapter 4: Control

* * *

MERLIN

Merlin was kind of bored, to put it plainly. He thought that once he started this adventure-the first one in a long time-he'd actually be doing things. Like the times in Camelot where he would be on constant alert, fighting to save Arthur, trying to figure out the next move…..because even though he was usually terrified out of his mind, things were exciting. They were challenging and pushed him to his limits, to be greater. His "quest" right now was nothing more than a glorified scavenger hunt.

Granted, he was going around collecting some of the most powerful items in the world, but when you can teleport… it becomes almost trivial. Neville has been helping him out by collecting some of the more ordinary ingredients; he refused Merlin's wishes to stay uninvolved. He also told Merlin where his next item was, which is how Merlin found himself outside of Hogwarts.

Merlin transported just outside of Hogwarts so as not to trigger the wards around it. Although he was fully capable, disabling the wards just so he could teleport a little closer to Hogwarts seemed like a waste of energy. There was also the matter of alerting everyone there to his presence and leaving them vulnerable to Emma should she decide she wants to attack Hogwarts. So, Merlin just walked there instead under an invisibility spell of his.

He walked around the shores of the lake, his destination now in sight. Dumbledore's grave, the White Tomb. A long time ago, when Merlin defeated Morgana, there simply was nothing powerful enough to defeat her completely. The Sidhe staff could only seal the darkness away in a pocket dimension that then grew over time. Even as the world replenished its magic, there was still nothing strong enough to conduct it. Merlin could use himself as a magic conductor, but that ran the risk of destroying him and then upsetting the magical balance and…..well, he'd rather not think about that.

As Merlin tried to figure out another way to keep the balance stable and destroy the Darkness, a curious thing happened. In one of the worlds he created, a story began to unfold about three impossible items. In this world, Death appeared in front of three brothers and gifted them three items for defeating him: a wand, a stone, and a cloak. Merlin paid little attention to this story that his author made at first, as many stories contained magical items. But then, one day, these items appeared in the real world. These items were powerful enough to break through the limits of their world and enter the real one. Merlin had never anticipated this, he never thought the things he created could become more powerful than he was. He felt rather like a father in that way…

So now he stood in front of the White Tomb to take the Elder Wand. He had lost track of it over time, but when he mentioned a powerful wand to Neville, he was told exactly where it was. The tomb was beautiful, too, made of a pure white stone and built on a small hill overlooking the lake. It was a pity Merlin was grave robbing it. He felt bad about it, he really did, but he needed this wand. If Dumbledore was alive, Merlin was sure he would understand. However, that thought did nothing to alleviate the sour taste he had in his mouth from what he was about to do.

Pushing aside his apprehension, Merlin raised one hand and brought down the wards as gently as he could. While the spells were powerful for new magic users, they were no match for the power of the old religion. Merlin heaved a sigh as he prepared to take off the top of the tomb when he heard someone yelling behind him.

"Young man, step away from there!" a woman's voice intoned behind him. Merlin's eyes widened as he realized who it was and he turned around slowly to confirm it. There, striding towards him purposefully with her wand raised and pointed at him was the current Headmistress of Hogwarts, Minerva McGonagall.

"This isn't what it looks like…..okay, maybe it is. But I swear to you there is a good reason for this," Merlin told her, holding his hands up so she could see them. She narrowed her eyes at him and refused to lower her wand.

"There is no good reason for students to be here at this time, not to mention setting off the alarms on the wards." There were alarms on the wards? Merlin was out of practice then, he didn't think they would account for that possibility seeing as the wards should have been able to block all new magic. Gaius surely would have scolded him for not being careful enough. More importantly, student?

"Oh, uh, Headmistress McGonagall, I'm not a student here," Merlin told her. She took another step closer and angled her head a little bit, probably trying to see him more clearly.

"So you are not," she said before she gripped her wand tighter in preparation to attack, "Then you should not be in Hogwarts at all. How did you get past the wards?"

"Um, they let me pass. Look, I need the Elder Wand from Dumbledore in order to defeat the evil that is now descending upon London."

"How do you know about the Elder Wand? And what do you mean, the wards let you pass?" Minerva questioned, still ready to attack him. Merlin was surprised she already hadn't done so, but she was a very reasonable woman. Lucky for him.

"I can't really tell you the answer to those. Even if I did, you wouldn't believe me, but I can assure you I mean no harm to any of the students or staff here and I will only use the Elder Wand for good."

"My boy, while I do not doubt your words, I cannot in good conscience let any unknown man walk the grounds of Hogwarts. Unless you tell me who you are, I will use force to make you leave." Merlin admired her for her courage to stand up to him. She really did belong in the Gryffindor house despite what everyone says. Besides, he knew her to be a good person who would keep his secret if he asked. But first he'd have to convince her.

"Well, it's not like I've been doing a great job at keeping my secret lately anyway, so okay. But, even after I tell you, you won't believe me."

"I would like to be able to decide that for myself."

"You also can't tell anyone else. In order for me to do my job effectively, it's best that not many people know who I am. Will you promise me that you won't tell anyone after I tell you?"

"I will keep your secret so long as it does not jeopardize the safety of my students." Merlin shrugged in response, that was fair enough.

"Ok, the reason the wards let me through them is because I helped make them. And I know about the Elder Wand because I am partially responsible for creating it. My name is Merlin."

Merlin watched as the Headmistress looked him over for signs of deceit. He could see the disbelief written across her face and her unwillingness to accept it. As brave as she was, this was just a little bit too much for her to accept without proof. Merlin sighed, he hated doing this, but unless he did, no one ever really believed he was Merlin.

Before the Headmistress could protest the validity of his claim, Merlin swept his arms and his eyes flashed gold. Merlin saw McGonagall shield her eyes from the spell, caught off guard as she was. And then she began to gape, her wand slowly falling to her side. Merlin had changed into the Great Dragoon, the form that nearly every wizard knew from all those chocolate cards with his picture on them. He watched her blink a few times to try and regain her senses before he chuckled.

"Yes, this form is what everyone seems to recognize me as. It's not as mobile as my other one, being so old. And everything aches. All the time. But it's what historians remember me as so, here we go," Merlin finished with a small flourish of his hands. Minerva still stared at him in shock and he couldn't help it, he had to tease her just a little bit.

"Are you going to give me detention now, Headmistress McGonagall?" Merlin asked with a big grin on his face. McGonagall shook her head at him numbly, her brain still catching up to the present. And then she must have remembered how she was threatening him earlier and the blood drained from her face as her knees collapsed on her. Merlin was ready for it, though, and conjured a chair for her so that as she fell she slumped into it instead.

"Now, you just have a seat while I grab this wand and get out of your hair." Merlin then pushed the top of the tomb off, sliding it carefully over the edge and laying it down on the grass.

"You're Merlin," Minerva said behind him, just above a whisper.

"Yeah, that's me. Powerful sorcerer and all that." Merlin debated whether or not he should turn himself younger again as he hobbled to the tomb. Had being the Great Dragoon always been this tiring?

"But you should be dead."

"Oh, but I'm very much alive, thank you. Been around quite a bit." The wand was placed over Dumbledore's heart with his hands clasped around it. Merlin said a soft prayer and thanked Dumbledore for holding on to it all this time before gently prying it out of his grasp.

"I called you a student."

"That you did. Which isn't completely incorrect, I've been through here a few times as a student."

"You have?" Minerva asked, and Merlin noted that she was coming back now. Good, he had to reaffirm her promise not to tell anyone about him.

"Yes, I find it fun to come through here and learn the latest techniques of wand magic."

"But you don't need a wand," the Headmistress noted. Merlin shrugged.

"I can use one, it just isn't as instinctual for me. But in the case of this wand," Merlin held up the Elder Wand, "I will make an exception. Also, you will not tell anyone about me. I rather like my privacy."

"Of course, Merlin."

"Good. Well, good day Headmistress McGonagall. It was a lovely chat," Merlin said with a slight incline to his head and then he turned himself invisible. While invisible, he reverted back to his younger age and began to walk to Hogsmeade.

As he walked away, he heard McGonagall muttering under her breath, "I can't believe I just talked with _the_ Merlin…" causing Merlin to chuckle. He never felt like he ever did anything that deserving or great, but everyone revered him as some sort of saint. Or God. Or some new way to curse inventively with his beard or pants….which are technically trousers, but that's beside the point. Merlin accomplished what he came here to. Soon, he would have everything he needed. Soon, he would be able to face the Dark One.

* * *

EMMA

Emma wasn't quite sure how she felt about the recent developments she'd set in motion. On the one hand, it seemed like the right thing to do. No one should have to live their lives in fear or try to hide who they really are. They should be proud of their magical abilities and work together with muggles to make things better for everyone. On the other hand, Emma very much felt like she just started a cult and became their leader. Not something she was quite comfortable with.

Most of the people that joined her were rather normal people who were looking for something to believe in. Emma gathered from the many conversations she'd had that most wizards lost faith in their government, the Ministry of Magic, a long time ago despite the many improvements they were making. Emma related it to how McDonald's would always be known for terrible quality no matter what they did to their food. Either way, it worked in her favor quite well.

But then, there were the psychopaths that joined her. These people were descendants of those who worked for Voldemort and were trying to make her into him. Overall, they were ruthless with no morals and a lust for power that they thought Emma could provide. And she could, if she wanted to. There was that little voice in the back of her head saying that she should indulge them and make them all powerful, but her sensible side told her that giving them too much power would only hurt her.

Instead, Emma bided her time and made her main priority spreading her ideals around. They already knew she was powerful, so she didn't need a power display. The government couldn't track her since she used a different type of magic than they did. What she needed was to figure out how many people she had and what they could do in order to plan accordingly.

Her goal remained the same though: make muggles aware of magic. So in addition to spreading the word to get new followers, she created a charm that would mimic the effects of the potion she used. It was only temporary, but with the amount of people she had, they'd manage to cover a lot of area. This also allowed her followers to remain anonymous, subtly applying the charm she made as they went about their daily lives. She didn't want to cause a commotion, not yet.

Emma sighed as she lay back in her chair, she would have to make her next move soon, and this time it would have to be powerful. More than just showing up at the Ministry of Magic. This would have to get the attention of the world, but in a non-aggressive way. Even as she thought that, something tugged at her, tempting her to burn an entire city to the ground or cause a massive tidal wave. It was hard to temper that lure.

"Lady Emma?" someone asked as they knocked on her door. Emma lazily waved her hand and the door opened. "We've finished applying the muggle charms for the week."

"Thank you."

"Lady Emma," and for some reason that name didn't bother her as much as she thought it would have, "I mean no disrespect, but, a few of us have been wondering what the next step of the plan is. We would like to help if we can or prepare for it."

Emma mentally translated this to "We're impatient and want to get a move on with something" and after a moment of consideration, she responded appropriately, "Our next step is to gain their full attention." The man immediately shut his mouth, probably not expecting an actual answer.

"You mean… a display of force?" And Emma remembered why this man… Alan? Was the one she talked to usually. He had the guts to ask the right questions and Emma appreciated that.

"In a way. I don't want to follow the footsteps of Voldemort," Alan flinched at the name, "in how he hurt innocent people, but I still need to demonstrate that we are serious about our endeavor. I want to leave no doubt in their minds that we will do whatever it takes to accomplish our mission: reveal magic to the world."

Emma could see the way her words affected Alan, the awe written across his face. Something about this felt natural to her, familiar. That people would look upon her with awe. But Emma was sure that this had never happened in her life, none of her conscious memories reflected this. But she still knew this was true.

"Yes, Lady Emma. I will spread your words to everyone else." Emma nodded in response and waved Alan away. As Alan closed the door, Emma locked it and closed her eyes, entering an almost meditative state. She had a few questions she wanted to ask the Dark One.

"These feelings I'm getting, are they yours?" Emma asked in her head. Like so many times before, she could feel the Dark One's presence there, but it seemed to be closer, stronger than before. Like it was growing inside her head.

"Yes, those are my memories you're feeling. It might be hard for you to imagine, but I once commanded a high level of respect and garnered men's attention with ease."

"But why am I feeling them, remembering things I've never experienced before?"

"Because dear Emma, we are one."

Emma recoiled at this, trying to shut the Dark One out, but found that she could not. Even after opening her eyes, their weight pressed insider her head, the memories and feelings that weren't hers still lingered. The implications of this sent Emma reeling. The Dark One had been influencing her decisions this whole time?

"Oh no, these have all been your decisions," the Dark one answered her thoughts, "it's also quite useless to try hiding your thoughts from me. We are the same person after all."

"I am nothing like you."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that. While I admit we are different in some ways, in many ways we are very similar. You want to free everyone from the burden of hiding their magic, and so do I. You possess abilities that terrify you, and at one point in my life, my powers terrified me too. And then I learned to embrace them and use them. I can help you do that, too. You don't have to be afraid."

Emma's heart pounded in her chest and not for the first time she wished Mary Margaret or Henry or Hook or someone was here to help her. But as she thought about how much she missed them, another thought told her that they were just holding her back. That she didn't need them. That killing them would earn her her freedom from the dagger. The pull in her mind was insistent, so she squashed the idea of seeing them altogether as she has done almost every day.

"But we could be free, Emma. Let no one tell us what to do or how to live our lives."

"No. I will not hurt my family. We will continue this crusade to free these people from their magic and I will keep my family safe."

"If that is what you want, Emma, then it is what I want, too," the Dark One told her, but Emma could see the sly smile on their face, like honey and venom combined into one devious expression. The Dark One was a very convincing liar.

"Oh, that's not a lie, Emma. I'll do whatever you want. I don't really have a choice in that matter, seeing as I'm tied to you. I just hope that one day, you'll see things my way. As I've said before, I'm very patient."

"Fine. So help me think of our next move then, one that doesn't kill people but gets our point across."

"Gladly, Emma. Gladly."

And so Emma let her mind mingle with the Dark One's, forming their next plan together. Emma thought she had control of what was going on, but the Dark One knew better. She knew that every time Emma let her in, she grew a little stronger, a little more in control of Emma's thoughts and actions. Emma's freedom was an illusion requiring great patience. But she could wait. She's waited thousands of years after all, what a few more days? Soon, she will have her revenge. Soon.

* * *

REGINA

Regina was tired. Not in the physical sense, although that was true, but mostly in the "I'm tired of this shit" sense. So maybe frustrated was a better word. They've been traveling the countryside for days only to grab a few items Regina was almost sure they could have gotten somewhere else. Salamander blood couldn't have been that hard to find. Heck, Regina thought she had some in her potions lab. But they went on a three-day excursion for it anyway. The more the days passed, the more Regina was starting to believe Henry.

How Elaine found them was suspicious enough in the first place, not to mention having the exact solution they needed for a problem they hadn't known about. Sure, being a seer could explain some of that away, but it was all too contrived. Too easy. Their adventures usually consisted of one wrong turn after another and everything going to Hell at some point, but they'd encountered nothing bad so far.

Well, besides Emma becoming the Dark One. That was pretty bad.

Speaking of which, they still had no idea where Emma was or what she was doing. Elaine told them that Emma would be in London, but all they had was her word. Which Regina was starting to trust less and less.

Regina pondered these things as everyone talked around her at the campfire, Robin Hood to her immediate left and everyone else scattered in a circle. Henry usually sat next to her, but lately he'd been next to Elaine, waiting for her to slip up again. Regina was just a little proud of him for that.

"Regina, how are you holding up?" Robin Hood asked as he leaned in next to her.

"I'm fine, just tired."

"Well, it is late. Perhaps you could turn in early?"

"No, not yet. I'm… thinking about something."

"Anything I could help with then?" he asked and Regina finally turned to look at him. It killed her most times she looked into his eyes. They were always so straightforward and honest, sincere and kind, like she had never been. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that he'd be there for her if she ever needed him. All she had to do was let her guard down and ask. But this wasn't the right time for that, not with everyone else around.

"Right now I just need to work through it on my own. I'll let you know when I need your help, though. Thank you, Robin," Regina said as she put her hand on his, a rare gesture for her. Robin seemed to accept her answer though and gave her a little nod before returning to the conversation.

"Anything I could help with then, Regina? I am a seer after all," Elaine said, apparently having eavesdropped on their conversation.

"While I don't appreciate eavesdropping, there may be something you can help me with, actually. Can you show us Emma?" Regina noticed Elaine tighten her smile for a second and open her mouth to respond when Snow cut her off.

"Oh yes, I'd very much like to know how Emma is doing."

"So would I," Charming echoed, "you can do that?" And Regina watched as Elaine's face fell for half a second before she put on a fake smile.

"Yes, it's not easy, but I can. I need something of hers though to anchor my thoughts, if that's all right." Snow nodded and took off a bracelet she was wearing and handed it to Elaine.

"Will this work? I borrowed it from Emma's room before we left."

"Yes, that should be fine," Elaine confirmed as she reached into her bag and pulled out a handheld mirror. That must be the one Henry claimed to have seen things in. Elaine put the bracelet around the handle of the mirror, holding it up and saying something in a strange language. It was magic Regina had never seen before, drawing power in way completely unlike her own. She knew no one else in the circle could feel it, but she could. It wasn't dark, not necessarily, but it wasn't good either. It was clearly powerful, though.

At the end of the incantation, the mirror showed images like a small TV screen. It flipped through several before focusing in on one of Emma. She looked noticeably more haggard, but also more enchanting. Regina couldn't pinpoint what was different about her, but she seemed more confident, more imposing. Perhaps it was the chair-or more accurately, throne-she sat in, alone in a large chamber with a high ceiling and decorative walls. It looked like the main room of a castle, complete with a red carpet leading up to her. As they all watched, a man came in to… report to her? They talked for a bit before she waved him away and went back to closing her eyes and thinking, her face twisted in a grimace.

Then the image disappeared, replaced by the reflective surface of the mirror. Elaine removed the bracelet and handed it back to Snow with a small thank you.

"Emma looks…different," Snow commented thoughtfully. Regina almost snorted.

"She looks like an evil queen, with henchmen and everything."

"Regina!" Snow said in almost a gasp.

"Okay maybe not evil, but definitely a queen and definitely not good."

"Do you think that the Dark One is taking over her already?"

"I couldn't say…" Regina trailed off, wishing she could give the expectant eyes of the group a better answer than that.

"Charming, what do you think?" Snow asked her husband, reaching over to hold his hands for comfort.

"I don't know, but that person didn't look like our Emma. Something is affecting her and the only thing I can think of is the Dark One."

"Which is why we're doing our best to gather the ingredients as quick as we can. So we can save Emma," said Elaine. Snow and Charming nodded, satisfied by this answer, but Regina could see that her son did not feel the same way. She was about to say something before Henry cut in.

"I think we should find Merlin."

"We tried Henry, but we don't have any leads. In the end, we decided that this would be our best course of action," Snow said gently, trying to reason with Henry peacefully.

"We didn't try hard enough. We just started following Elaine because it was the easiest option. The apprentice told us to find Merlin, and what do we do? We blow him off."

"Henry, Merlin is a very elusive man. It could take years of searching and we still may not find him. We don't have that kind of time," Snow pressed on.

"I know that. But we didn't even try looking for him!" Henry nearly yelled in frustration.

"We don't have the time to waste on looking for him. Every day we wait is another day that Emma could be lost to the Darkness forever. I won't let that happen."

"How do you know we can trust Elaine?" Henry said in a harsh whisper, but in the stillness of the night everyone heard him clearly.

"Henry! Elaine has been nothing but nice and helpful to us. She gave up a lot of her time waiting for us just so she could help."

"Yeah but-" Henry began to protest before Elaine interrupted him.

"How do you know you can trust Merlin?" Regina felt a pang in her heart as Henry hesitated to answer her. He must be thinking on the words she herself told him, and she almost felt bad for crushing his naivety, but she had to. Maybe Elaine wasn't to be trusted, but maybe Merlin wasn't either.

"Because the apprentice said so."

"And you trust him?"

"Yes!" Henry shouted, growing frustrated again. At this point, Regina moved away from Robin to sit next to him and rub his shoulder comfortingly. It seemed to calm him down a little bit, but neither he nor Elaine would stop staring the other down.

"Henry, I would like to tell you a story. Once upon a time, in a land of myth, and a time of magic… the destiny of a great kingdom rested on the shoulders of a young boy. His name… Merlin. From the time he was just a boy, magic came so easily to him. To anyone who knew of his magic, it was clear that he would one day become great. He traveled to Camelot to study under a friend of his family's and there he met Prince Arthur, Lady Morgana and the Great Dragon. The Great Dragon told Merlin of his destiny, to bring magic back to the land of Camelot by making Arthur king.

"The Great Dragon also went on to tell Merlin that the Lady Morgana, King Uther's ward, would be his greatest enemy. At the time, Lady Morgana didn't even know she had magic, that her dreams were anything but dreams. But the Great Dragon told Merlin that she would become evil in the future and Merlin, despite being close to her, grew not to trust her. When she went to him for help with her growing magic, he turned her away. Alone and afraid that someone would find her magic and kill her, she turned to another for help.

"This person then used Morgana as a vessel for a magic spell without her knowing in order to destroy Camelot. Merlin found out that Morgana was the source of this and poisoned her to stop the spell. She was one of his best friends, and he sentenced her to death for unknowingly being part of the spell. He believed the Great Dragon's words that she would become evil, and by believing them, he made them true. Lady Morgana eventually became Merlin's greatest enemy, and they battled for many years after that before Merlin defeated her at the Battle of Camlann.

"So tell me, Henry, do you trust this kind of man? The one who would kill his own friend to save a kingdom?"

A silence fell over the camp as the group processed the story on their own. Regina had never heard that story before, but it was consistent with how she thought of Merlin. Growing up, she had heard stories of Merlin, too. Stories about his power and strength and sense of justice. As a ruler of a kingdom for years, even an evil one, she understood that being powerful meant making tough decisions. What it came down to now was whether or not Merlin ever felt regret for his actions or dismissed them as a necessary evil. But without Merlin here, there was no way to tell.

"Is that why you hate him then, because he killed your sister?" Henry asked quietly. Immediately Elaine's eyes lit up with a fire in them, her hands clasping and unclasping at her sides in an effort not to let her anger show. It was kind of amusing.

"No. My sister was overcome by darkness at that point. I am angry with him for not giving her the chance to be good. I do not trust Merlin. So, if you wish to find him, then I will have to part ways with you."

"Wait!" Snow jumped in, her eyes darting between her grandson and Elaine, "Elaine, please stay with us. Without you, we cannot save Emma."

"Yes we can, we just have to find Merlin," Henry insisted, now pointing his gaze at Snow.

"Henry, we don't have time for that."

"Well I can't go along with this anymore. I would like to find Merlin and get his help. I don't want hers," Henry said, glaring at Elaine.

"We need her help," Snow pressed on.

"No, we don't."

"Perhaps we should split up then," Regina suggested before her brain could really process the idea, "I mean, it doesn't take six people to gather ingredients. Some of us could go look for Merlin and the rest can help Elaine."

"Mom, I don't think-"

"Henry," Regina leaned in closer to whisper so no one else could hear, "if she is setting a trap, I would like someone close to her to keep an eye on her, okay? Friends close and enemies closer."

"Ok," Charming said, bringing everyone back to focus, "Snow and I will stay with Elaine then. Regina, I'm assuming you're going with Henry?"

"Of course."

"And I'll go with them as well," Robin Hood chimed in. Regina almost laughed at how lost he looked, but he seemed set on following her anyway. It was kind of adorable and heartwarming.

"So come morning, we'll go our separate ways?" Snow reiterated for clarification, earning nods from the group.

"Well now that that's settled, I think we should all get some sleep now," Elaine said before getting up and heading to her own bed. Snow and Charming agreed and left as well. Robin gave Regina a look as if asking if he should stay, but Regina waved him off. She needed a quick chat with Henry.

"Are you sure about this, Henry? I don't think Elaine was lying about that story, based on what you told me a few days ago anyway."

"I'm sure. Even if Merlin isn't the great person I thought he was, I trust the apprentice when he told us that we'd need Merlin's help. And who knows, maybe Merlin is the person I thought he was and he'll actually want to help us."

"I hope so, Henry. It'd be nice to have the great Merlin on our side." With that, Regina kissed the top of Henry's head and told him to go to sleep soon. He agreed with a yawn and they both retired to their sleeping bags.

Regina hadn't intended to separate the group, but she couldn't help but agree with Henry. Something didn't sit right with her about Elaine. It was like she had that story all planned out, to try and drive a wedge between them. Was that her goal all along, to split them up? What would she gain from it, though? Would Merlin be able to help them, and if he could, would he be willing to?

Flopping in her sleeping bag with a sigh, she tried to rid these thoughts from her head. They were getting her nowhere and she was tired. Tomorrow she could deal with them, but right now, all she wanted was some sleep.

* * *

I think this will be one of my fastest updates. It sure feels like it, but time has been smooshing together lately.

And yes! I unveil who Elaine is! Surprise! Kudos to anyone who figured it out before this chapter. I thought I would keep it secret longer, but this story is moving at a super-fast pace. Not my intention, but I usually have a habit of dragging things out anyway, so maybe this is good. Until next time!


	5. Divide

This might just be the fastest I've updated a chapter since middle school... weird.

Spoilers for all 3 fandoms up to end of HP (follows the books), end of Merlin, and end of season 4 for OUAT.

Summary: Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Neville, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D

Chapter 5: Divide

* * *

HOOK

Hook was feeling rather frustrated by this whole adventure. Emma was slowly being overcome by the Darkness she had shouldered to protect the world. Emma's family and friends were a bunch of idiots, following an unknown woman who said she'd help them save Emma. What woman would wait for over a thousand years just to help one person? She definitely had an agenda of her own and Hook didn't trust her one bit. Hook's roommate didn't help matters at all.

"Um, Mr. Hook? Could you… uh, not put your feet on the table? Please?" Hook's roommate, Giles, asked in what Hook deemed the most annoying voice ever. With a deliberate slowness, Hook turned his head to meet the eyes of his roommate. Giles was standing in the doorway and almost hid behind the frame when Hook turned to look at him. Hook rolled his eyes and went back to reading his magazine, wondering-not for the first time-if he should just leave this apart.

Hook became Giles' roommate when he separated with the rest of the group upon arriving in London. He knew that he'd need to find a place to stay while he was here, and set off to find the perfect person to blackmail into the job. After a day or two, Hook realized that London had a secret magical community. They certainly hid it well, but Hook knew when something was enchanted and that people don't walk into a telephone booth and never come out again. So, he followed Giles the next time he saw him, threatened him with his hook, and made him tell him everything about the magical community of London.

Imagine his surprise when nearly a week later Emma presented herself in the place where Giles worked, the Ministry of Magic, and Giles said he wanted to join Lady Emma. Hook told him it was a great idea. And since it wasn't exactly a popular thing, Giles confided his excitement and the things Emma talked about with Hook. Hook knew he wouldn't be able to get too close to her on his own-she'd sense him somehow and try to take the dagger; but this way, he could keep an eye on her and know she was safe.

Except, she wasn't. The Emma Giles described to Hook was nothing like the Emma he knew, except for the stubbornness. But he assumed a lot of women had that trait. It didn't take him long to figure out that the Darkness was taking her over, but he didn't know what to do from there. Use the dagger to force her to stop? That might work for a little bit, but long term he had no doubt she'd get the dagger. Convince her with his charms? Tempting, but no. Overpower her? No chance at all.

So Hook continued his observations on Emma, making sure she didn't do anything she'd really regret when she came to her senses; it wasn't much, but it was all he could do for now.

"Mr. Hook?" Giles pleaded from the doorway.

"All right, mate, I heard you," Hook acknowledged as he moved his feet off the coffee table.

"Thank you. And uh, I won't be home to make dinner tonight."

"Oh? Another WEM meeting?" Hook asked, trying to be nonchalant about it.

"Yes! We're actually holding a demonstration today, it's very exciting," Giles rambled, leaving the safety of the doorway in his eagerness to tell Hook.

"A demonstration?" Hook echoed.

"Yes, Lady Emma has prepared something for us. Says we're going to use the muggle… TB system to spread our message."

"You mean TV?"

"Oh yes, TV. Anyway, after tonight, the world will have no choice but to recognize magic as real and accept it."

Hook did not like the sound of that. First, she had those creepy doll things to prevent the Ministry of Magic from eliminating the memories of those who had seen magic, then she had appeared at the Ministry itself. Now, a demonstration? Hook knew from his own experience that a demonstration was usually a peaceful word for something terrible. Like demonstrating what happens to traitors.

"Do you know what this demonstration is about?"

"Oh no, only Lady Emma and the officers close to her know. They didn't want to spread it lower in case someone reported it to the Ministry. She's a very smart lady."

"Indeed," Hook agreed as he mulled this information over, eventually coming to a decision, "I think I'll go with you this time, Giles."

"You-you will?!" Giles asked in nearly a shriek.

"Yeah, if it's going to be such an important event that it's going to be aired on TV, might as well get a front row seat to the action. Do you think that's possible?"

"Yes, of course! We can do side-long apparition to the event. It's not my favorite mode of transportation, but it beats mingling with muggles." Hook didn't really understand, but he nodded along anyway.

A few hours later, he found he had to agree with Giles that apparition is not his favorite mode of transportation. It felt like being squeezed through the top of a bottle and then being spit back out.

"I did warn you, Mr. Hook," Giles reminded him petulantly and it took most of his restraint not to punch the kid in the face. He was helpful and a decent person; his only real fault was how annoying he was. Maybe he should just punch him anyway, it would make him feel a little better.

"Let's just get going, all right?" Hook motioned with his normal hand as he tried to settle the queasy feeling in his stomach; he hadn't thought it possible, but this felt worse than the time he drank five bottles of rum in one sitting.

As he recovered from the apparition, he took in his surroundings. They were in a football stadium of some kind, with the two nets on either end. He only really learned the game since arriving in London; it seemed to be their main sport here, from all the news magazines he demanded Giles get him. More people arrived with a small pop as he looked around the stadium, all of them dressed like Giles in black robes or some variation. He noticed that the stands were filling in with non magical people as well, all with their phones out. There was even a flying machine above them, and Hook vaguely recalled it was used to take pictures from a higher altitude.

Most notable, though, was the seven-headed reptilian beast in the middle of the stadium. Maybe he should have noticed that first, but really, he was trying to avoid looking at it. It was huge, as big as a dragon, but with more heads that were snapping at people who were firing some kind of magic from their wands at it. Giles was already gone from his side, joining the fray to fight the beast. Hook wasn't paying attention to him, though; his mind was on Emma.

It took him a minute to find her, but he eventually spotted her in the middle of the field, shouting out instructions to the people around her and occasionally fighting with her own magic. She looked like how he remembered her, in jeans and that red leather jacket he loved. The stories Giles told him must have been exaggerated then, Hook told himself. But then she turned around to yell something at someone and her face was very different.

The lines on her face seemed sharper, giving her an almost regal look. Her normally wide eyes were narrowed in concentration as she scanned the field in front of her. She held her head high, her chin up. The most unnerving part, though, was her smile. It was a cocky smirk, that of someone used to getting their way and having the upper hand. It fit weirdly on Emma's face, the girl who was usually so unsure of herself and what she was supposed to be doing, but it was there all the same. That more than anything convinced him that this wasn't his Emma.

But now that he was here, he didn't know what to do. Confront her? Stop her? Fight her? Scenarios ran through his head of using the dagger to stop her, calling out to her, watching as things just fell apart. While he deliberated, he noticed someone else like him. They, too, were standing back and assessing the situation, not taking part in the madness that was fighting a poison-breathing, seven-headed beast. Yes, it breathed poison. Not fire. Poison. Hook wouldn't have believed the monster was real could he not smell it from where he was standing.

The other man stood there with his arms crossed and made no move to brandish his wand. He had slicked back blond hair and was a little taller than Hook. He wore the same black robes as everyone else, but the pirate noticed its quality was finer than Giles' clothes. So this was a person of a higher social status then. His eyes seemed especially trained on Emma, but they also darted to the beast every few seconds. It was hard to ignore the giant beast that roared, snapped and killed everything around it.

"Hullo," Hook greeted, trying to appear more confident than he was in a stadium of magic users and whatever that beast was. The man glanced over at him, looked him over once quickly, and then apparently didn't like what he saw and turned back to Emma. Hook clenched his fists in an attempt to quell the anger he felt. It didn't work.

"Oi, mate! Don't just ignore someone when they're talking to you."

"I'm not in the habit of talking to people with no manners," the blond man stated with a sneer and continued to otherwise ignore him. Hook wanted to go on and give this person a piece of his mind, but then he remembered why he was here. Emma. Grumbling a little in frustration, he ran his free hand through his hair to calm down.

"My name is Killian, but most people call me Hook," he introduced himself and extended his actual hand. The blond turned to him again and gave a long suffering sigh before he took Hook's hand and shook it.

"Draco. Pleasure."

"This might sound strange to say, but you don't seem like you really want to be here," Killian pressed. Draco gave him another assessing look, probably re-evaluating his previous assumptions, and then looked back to Emma.

"I could say the same for you." It was then that Hook realized that this person was remarkably similar to him. They were both guarded and experienced in saying just the right thing when they needed to. They could probably go back and forth like this for quite a while, assessing where the other stood and how intelligent they were, if they'd be a good asset to each other and such. But Hook didn't have that kind of time.

"I'm not here to make a demonstration fighting the beast. I'm just here for her," Hook motioned to Emma and Draco's attention was back on him. He raised an eyebrow at him as if to say go on.

"Emma… wasn't always like this. She's actually one of the kindest people I know, even if she'd deny it. But because of that, she…sacrificed her light to contain a great darkness," Hook explained as his gaze wandered back to her, a dull pain aching in his chest.

"And this Darkness is what guides her actions now?" Draco guessed.

"Aye."

"Great. Another complication to the plan," Draco muttered, crossing his arms and glowering.

"What plan?"

"Hm? Nothing you need be concerned about. Doesn't include muggles."

"If this plan of yours concerns Emma, then it certainly concerns me."

"I fail to see how you could help, you don't have any magic."

"Who said I don't have magic?"

Draco snapped his gaze to Hook with a raised eyebrow, as if to ask what he meant, but before either could respond a long howl of pain echoed across the stadium and the beast fell. All of the heads were chopped off and the necks sealed together. There was a moment of silence before the entire crowd erupted into applause, both wizards and muggles alike. Emma stood in the middle of it, triumphant and relieved. Many people gathered around her and congratulated her. Hook took the moment to appreciate the fact that Emma was okay and the beast was gone, ignoring the questioning stare of his new acquaintance.

And that was when a hole through the air opened up, a portal similar to the ones formed from using a magic bean; Hook could only stare in shock as more beasts entered through the portal. There was a lion, a bull and ferocious birds, all far larger than any animal of their species and maddened with what he could only call unbridled rage. It was clear from the look on Emma's face that this was not what she had planned. Even in the face of these beasts, Hook only had one thought in mind: protect Emma no matter what.

* * *

RON

Ron was out of his depth, though not for the first time in his life. Being best friends with Harry Potter makes that a given, but still. He thought then when they defeated Voldemort they'd stop being involved in crazy adventures. But then he became an Auror. He really should have expected crazy to follow him in that regard, but somehow the thought never occurred to him. Now he was facing down mythical beasts that he was quite sure should not exist in real life. He only knew them from a movie Hermione insisted he watch, "Hercules", so he knew they were based on the Greek legends behind the movie. But now the legends were real?

But then the bull breathed fire that nearly scorched his hair, and Ron was definitely sure they were real.

"Ron! Don't get too close!" Harry yelled at him from where he was battling some monstrous birds.

"Yeah, thanks for the heads up, Harry!" Ron yelled back a little sarcastically. Harry just shook his head in response and Ron cast a shield charm as another ball of fire hurled towards him. Even through the shield, Ron could feel the heat around him. Someone else, one the WEM idiots, cast a stunning spell on the bull. It might have blinked in response, but it was hard to tell through the smoke.

"Stunning doesn't work! Cripple the legs!" Ron called out hoping they could hear him. The man swiveled in his spot trying to find the source before he saw Ron staring at him, and then grudgingly nodded. Ron didn't know how these morons managed to defeat the…..hydra? Yeah, hydra.

Ron and the other Aurors arrived just as the Hydra was defeated. They would have been there sooner, but the stadium had heavy wards around it to prevent those not invited from entering or seeing what was going on. This Emma person made sure they would have a hard time interfering with her plan, much to the Ministry's annoyance.

However, they didn't help much when it came to battling these next beasts.

Taking a quick survey of the field, Ron could tell instantly that they were losing. Many of the WEM wizards were injured or exhausted from battling the hydra, and the Ministry simply didn't have the numbers to augment that loss and counterattack the increased number of threats. The medic witches and wizards were working overdrive trying to move the injured to a safe zone, too busy with that to even begin healing anyone.

They weren't going to win.

Emma must have realized this too, because she wasn't even making a move to fight anymore. Ron let his shield protect him and watched as she stood in the middle of the battle motionless. Even as the wizards she dragged into this were injured, she made no move to protect them. What kind of a leader was she?! Letting all these people get hurt. Before he could think better of it, Ron marched over to where she was. The fact that she was an all-powerful dark sorceress only vaguely crossed his mind. If she had wanted to seriously hurt anyone, she would have done it by now.

"Oi! Are you mental?! You dragged the lot of these witches and wizards in here, and now you're just gonna stand around and let them die? Aren't you supposed to be powerful or something?" Ron shouted, Emma just staring at him with a faraway look in her eyes. It was only when he stopped that he could see the tension in her eyes. She didn't look afraid like he had thought. More like she was caught in a tough decision, stuck between two things she didn't want to do. Well, Ron knew how to make this easier for her.

"If you don't stop these beasts, everyone here will die. We can't win this." Emma looked at him again, and Ron noticed that she didn't look all that evil. Harry and him had been calling her the Dark Lady, but up close, she didn't look that evil. Just….lost. It kind of reminded Ron of Harry when he first met him. When Harry was still trying to get used to being famous and having magic. He often had that same look where he wasn't sure if he could do something. But right after that, he'd steel his resolve and do it anyway.

Emma was no different.

She closed her eyes and Ron knew that she had made her decision. He took a few steps back, not knowing what she was planning, and was shocked when she opened her eyes again. Everything he just said about her not looking dark? He took that back. She looked positively menacing then, her eyes narrowed and alight with a power Ron had never felt before. More powerful than Harry, Voldemort….anyone. It was like she was a different person.

As he stood there in shock, a man came running up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder and nearly shrieked in his face, "What did you do?!" Ron registered absentmindedly that the man had a hook for one hand, but was more concerned with the pure rage in his face. Well, the hook along with the rage on his face was a combination he couldn't ignore.

"I convinced her to save everyone. She was hesitating, and people are dying." The man with the hook stared at him and then shifted his scrutiny to Emma. Ron followed him and heard her mumbling under her breath with her hands held out in front of her, palms outward. She was preparing a spell of some kind.

The man looked like he wanted to say more to Ron, but no words came out. Instead, he released the grip he had on Ron's shoulder and fished around inside his jacket. He pulled out some ornate dagger and Ron immediately drew his wand, pointing it at the man.

"What do you plan to do with that?" Ron questioned.

"I'm not sure," the man confessed, staring at it in deep concentration. Ron was about to question him further when Malfoy of all people ran up next them.

"Weasley."

"Malfoy." It was about as civil of a greeting as they'd ever had. Old habits die hard.

"What's Emma doing?" Malfoy asked with a head nod in her direction. Ron shrugged in reply and Malfoy glowered at him.

"What? I have no idea what she's doing. She was standing there, not doing anything while people were dying and I sort of convinced her to do something."

"You convinced her."

"Yeah. She was hesitating on something, she looked lost and scared."

"She doesn't look that way now," Malfoy commented impassively, before his expression abruptly shifted and he stared at the other man still holding the dagger reverently.

"What?" Ron questioned, but Malfoy ignored him in favor of the hooked man.

"Killian, what is that?" Killian looked up then, twirling the dagger in his hand as he mulled over the words he wanted to say.

"It… controls the Darkness in her."

"Darkness in her?" Ron echoed and Malfoy gave him a look that clearly said shut up, important conversation happening here.

"You can control it?"

"Yes, but if she knows I have it, she'll stop at nothing to get it back."

"So it's for a last resort," Malfoy guessed, to which Killian nodded.

"I don't know if I should stop her from doing this," Killian voiced aloud, "if I stop her, as this young man said, we probably won't win. But if I don't…"

"The Darkness in her grows larger," Malfoy finished.

Ron, thoroughly out of his depth in the conversation at this point, decided to point out an obvious fact.

"I don't think she's giving you a choice, mate," Ron pointed to where Emma was as her muttering stopped. Recognition flashed across Killian's face, and he wordlessly slipped the dagger back inside his jacket; the spell was already done.

Emma yelled out one last word Ron didn't understand and her eyes flashed golden as a swirl of dark magic erupted around her. A swirling mass of blue and green energy, something Ron could only relate to the veil in the Department of Mysteries, appeared a few yards in front of Emma. With her left hand held out towards this veil, she flung her right hand out behind her, clenched and then yanked forward. With it, all of the beasts that had come through followed the motion and were sucked into the energy mass, gone in an instant.

A collective hush fell over the group as Emma muttered something else, her eyes flashed golden again, and with a clap the veil closed and vanished. She stood tall for a second as applause exploded around her before she lost her strength. Killian was at her side in heartbeat and caught her as she fell, passed out from the energy exertion. Ron had no idea what she just did, but whatever it was certainly looked draining.

More than that, it was powerful.

There was no doubt in his mind that the Ministry would have a fit when word of her strength got to them. They would be calling for her execution now, not just capture. A person as powerful as that would only be seen as a dangerous and unpredictable entity.

Even as Ron knew that, he couldn't help but disagree with them. As Killian held her close and brushed her hair tenderly, it was clear to him that they were in love. Ron also remembered how scared she was earlier, of giving in to that power, even if to save everyone else. If Malfoy and Killian's conversation was anything to go by, this woman was a container for a great Darkness, not darkness itself. To kill her because of that seemed…..wrong.

"What… just happened?" Harry asked softly as he came up beside him.

"Hell if I know. Ask Malfoy, he was the one who talked to that guy." As Malfoy drew closer to them, Neville also jogged up beside them, clearly looking for the same explanation they were.

"So?" Harry prompted.

"It seems that the Dark Lady is as much a victim in this as anyone else," Malfoy started.

Harry narrowed his eyes in skepticism, "How so?"

"From what that man," Malfoy motioned to Killian with his eyes, "told me, she was a magic user before, but for what I guess we'd call light magic. Then, they encountered this Darkness and she sacrificed herself to contain it. He has a dagger that can control the Darkness, but once she finds out he has it, she'll want it back."

"I think I want to talk to him some more," Harry said and the group silently agreed and walked over to where Kilian was still holding Emma on the ground. The rest of WEM cleared a space for them, unsure of what to do now that Emma was unconscious, but not ready to leave yet.

"Make some room, this isn't a free show," Ron hollered out, almost pushing people away as he did so. Slowly, the group backed off and it was just them, Killian and Emma.

"Um, excuse me," Harry started, "my name is Harry, and I'd like to talk to you for a bit if that's all right?"

Killian didn't respond back, so Harry tried again...but still no response. Fed up with this and usually the first to lose his temper anyway, Ron stepped in.

"Oi, we're just trying to help you out!"

"You can't," Killian whispered, just loud enough for them to hear.

"We can certainly try," Harry insisted, moving a step closer to him.

"You can't!" Killian nearly shouted, turning to them with a flash of anger, "only Merlin could help, but no one knows where he is so instead we decided to trust this wench of a blond woman who is clearly going to stab us in the back and absolutely no one sees it," Killian ranted before Harry cut him off with the same thought going through Ron's head.

"Merlin?" Out of the corner of his eye, Ron noticed Neville take an almost subconscious step backwards.

"Yes, bloody Merlin. That's what the apprentice said, but we have no idea where to begin looking for him." At this, Neville began wringing his hands together, clenching and unclenching his fists. Ron immediately recognized it as Neville's tell for when he was hiding something. Poor bloke never was very good at keeping secrets.

"Neville?" Ron asked gently, but Neville jumped anyway. All eyes turned to him expectantly.

"What?"

"You know something, don't you?" Ron pressed.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about…"

"Neville, if this is something that could help us defeat this Darkness, I would really hope you'd tell us," Harry pushed making Ron wonder where he had learned to guilt trip people like that. Neville looked at each of them individually before he finally cracked and gave in with a sigh.

"I know where Merlin is."

* * *

MERLIN

Merlin was feeling impatient. There was only one thing left for him to do before his preparations were complete: forge a new Excalibur. It was funny to him how the sword had grown in myth and legend over time. But even as the legends morphed and grew, he knew no one could ever truly describe what it meant. How he had fooled Arthur with it, or used it to destroy the cup of life. What the sword meant to the people of Camelot. And now, he had to create a second one of these.

He had put this task off for a good reason, though.

At first, Merlin was going to just turn Godric Gryffindor's sword into the next Excalibur, but then he realized that he'd have to keep it safe afterwards and that sword was too famous. Instead, he'd asked the goblins to make one for him. He wasn't quite sure how they would feel about it, but when he asked them, they were honored to make one for him. Said they'd do anything Emrys asked. He even managed to convince them to let him keep it afterwards. Not that he didn't trust them, but a sword like Excalibur needed a special kind of protection that goblins just couldn't match.

So it was in this way, high in spirits, that Merlin transported to a clearing he knew far too well; Camelot. Not that it was Camelot anymore, most of the houses had fallen apart with age and the streets were overgrown with grass, but the castle still stood in all its glory. Merlin had cast a spell on it, similar to the one over Hogwarts, that prevented anyone from finding this place or charting it on any map. If any person other than himself set foot here, they'd just see an empty field and walk away. There was someone else who could come and go as she pleased, though, and it was she whom Merlin came to visit.

"Visiting me after all these years?" the voice asked, ringing through his head. Merlin smiled as he turned around to greet her. There, on top of one of the castle towers, sat Aithusa, the White Dragon. She was curled around the tower like a cat, her tail swinging lazily. Little puffs of smoke came down from her nostrils like she was playing a little game with him. Even after all these years, she was just as gentle, kind and playful as she always was. The years couldn't completely mend her crippled legs or voice, though, much to Merlin's regret, but she seemed content enough.

"Has it been that long?" Merlin questioned, his voice teasing.

"Yes, you haven't visited me since the early twentieth century, Merlin."

"Yeah, there were a couple world wars going on that required me to protect some places lest they be lost forever. But I'll ignore them next time and come visit you," Merlin assured with a smile. She smiled back and blew a small jet of fire at him that he luckily ducked under. Well, most of it. His hair might be singed a little, but he knew he deserved it for ignoring her for so long. He was still brushing off his hair when she flew from her perch and landed in front of him with a soft thump.

But now came the hard part, the reason why he was here in the first place. Both he and Aithusa knew why, but he would have to actually ask, to say it out loud. And he knew that no matter what, he was going to break his friend's heart.

"Aithusa, I-"

"I know, Merlin. You need me to forge a new Excalibur." Merlin nodded meekly. "I will do it." Through their bond together, he could feel the gravity of her decision, the hurt and determination she felt when she said that. Her teasing and light manner was gone. He knew this wasn't an easy decision for her, after bonding with Morgana for years, but they both knew it was necessary.

"I'm sorry, Aithusa, I'm so sorry. If there was any other way…"

"Merlin, I understand. I have been alive nearly as long as you have, and like you, I have put this off. I do not want to do this Merlin, but I will. As surely as the sun rises, so it must set."

Despite them both being ancient and wise beyond anyone else, Merlin still felt a deep sadness over this choice. He didn't stop himself when he felt the urge to rush forward and hug her, and she complied with him and lowered her head for him to hug. Merlin was never able to do this with Kilgharrah, but Aithusa was more like a sister to him than a mentor. Her pain was his, and he wept for her incredible loss and suffering, for his own weakness that could not prevent Morgana's fall into darkness.

"It is time, Merlin." Aithusa said into his mind again and Merlin nodded as he backed off and presented the sword in front of her. With one great intake of breath, Aithusa breathed a flame that Merlin had only seen once in his life, when Excalibur was born. The sword changed colors in front of him before it settled on a gleaming silver. Merlin took it back and stared at it for a few moments while he thought of a name for it.

"Exchailen. Excalibur reborn," Merlin said out loud at last. In way of a response, Aithusa hummed her approval and Merlin felt her happiness at the name radiate through their bond.

"I have a knack for naming things," Merlin declared as he practiced swinging the sword, careful not to hurt himself.

"I would not be so sure, as my name never came to fruition," Aithusa replied back, but Merlin had a response instantly.

"Yes it did. You were the sun to Morgana's shadow, her light. In her darkest times, you gave her comfort, something I never could."

Aithusa seemed taken aback for a moment, stunned by his words and sincerity, before she brushed his cheek with her snout. Merlin laughed at the gentle gesture of such a large dragon, but it did not surprise him. Unlike Kilgharrah, Aithusa had never held back from showing what she was feeling. It only made them closer over the years, and times like these all the more somber.

"Thank you, Merlin," Aithusa told him earnestly.

"You're welcome."

Satisfied with the sword he had, Merlin waved goodbye to the White Dragon and teleported back to his home with a wave of his hand. He gave one long stretch before he put the sword in his pouch and went back into his shop to go find Neville...only to stop at the sudden arrangement of guests in his room.

"I'm sorry about this, but they insisted I bring them here," Neville apologized as he waved to his friends behind them. Merlin scanned them quickly and realized that he knew most of these people anyway; Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, and there was even Captain Hook from Neverland. Merlin had anticipated meeting the others, but certainly not Hook; that was a bit of a shock.

"Are you really Merlin?!" Ron blurted out before anyone could say anything, and Hermione elbowed him in the side sharply.

"Ron!"

"Well, he just looks so young, I'm used to him being you know, like Dumbledore or something."

"I rather agree with Weasley on this," Draco said, surprising most of the people in the room.

"I don't care what he looks like, as long as he can save Emma," Captain Hook interrupted before they could continue arguing over Merlin's appearance.

"Can you destroy the Darkness and save her?" Harry asked at last. Merlin let his eyes settle on Harry's, absorbing the fact that there were a lot of people in his little store, before he chose the simplest answer to their questions. So much for secrecy at this point. At least Neville looked suitably remorseful about telling everyone. Not that Merlin had ever told him not to tell people, but still. Oh yes, they had asked him a question.

"Yes, my name is Merlin, and I have a plan to save Emma's life."

* * *

And everyone's gathering together now. Can't say how many more chapters are left, but it probably won't be that long now. I'd guess another 2. But I could be wrong. I'm actually very pleased how the scene with Aithusa turned out, had to write it like 3 times before I was satisfied with their encounter. The feels were just so real for them. But this isn't even the beginning of the feels train, that's for later. Hopefully, I'll bring a few of you to tears.

Let me know in a review what you think will happen next. What's Emma's plan, or should I say the Dark One's now that she has more control? And Elaine, who we didn't see here, is plotting something too. And of course our misfit crew led by Merlin. So many irons in the fire.


	6. Titanium

Spoilers for all 3 fandoms up to end of HP (follows the books), end of Merlin, and end of season 4 for OUAT.

Summary: Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Neville, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D

Chapter 6: Titanium

* * *

MORGANA

Morgana was in high spirits. Not only did she have close to absolute control over her vessel now, but she even had a small army again. And these were even wizards! Never had she seen so many magic users together, and then their triumph over the beasts from Olympus? It was just splendid. To celebrate their victory, Morgana decided to take her higher up leaders on a field trip of sorts. She wanted them to understand who she was and what this battle meant to her.

She took them to her place of death.

While the memory of dying there was bitter, it would also serve to strengthen her resolve. To feel the magic in the air there, a dark concentration that acted as her gravestone, Morgana sighed at the thought of it. She reveled in the dark magic there, gained power from it. Hopefully, her followers would, too.

She transported them all there, in the forest close to the Lake of Avalon. They arrived with a small gust of wind, kicking up dirt and leaves around them. Her group looked about the forest in awe, and Morgana wondered if they could feel the magic in the air. It was strong here, a presence that loomed over and protected the land around it. It even smelled the same as it always did, untouched by the pollution of the new world. She suspected that she had Merlin to thank for that.

Merlin.

The name both enraged her and brought a sense of peace. He was the one who killed her, who betrayed her, who had been her enemy for years as she tried to take back what was hers. She couldn't count how many times they had fought, even indirectly, and how many times she had wished him dead. But before all that, they were friends. He was there for her when she needed him, laughed with her and made her smile. They had fought together and against each other. But in the end, he was victorious.

"Lady Emma, why have you brought us here?" Alan broke the silence. Morgana wanted to correct him, tell him to call her Lady Morgana as she was once known, but thought that could wait for a little bit. Let her explain everything first.

"This is a very special place to me," she spoke, her voice commanding others to listen, "for you see, this is where I died."

Immediately, she saw the confusion written on their faces and it brought a wry smile to her lips. She always did love telling a good story. With no small amount of flair, she spun around to address the group, their eyes trained on her.

"That sounds curious to you, does it not? That I have died, but still stand here before you. It was no small feat, but an arduous process over many years. I lived a long time ago, when magic was free and those you call muggles feared us. Because of our power, they persecuted and executed us. I fought against them at that time, and lost.

"But even in my defeat, I did not die, not completely. I was too powerful to be killed, and instead a sorcerer trapped me in a dagger. This dagger passed along to many people, and I gave them some of my power to use in the hopes that they would free me. None ever did, until this one."

Morgana checked quickly to make sure she still had everyone's rapt attention before she continued.

"This vessel I have now belongs to Emma Swan, a… witch with great power and a propensity for light magic. She fought against my help and divided control of the vessel in half. But as she let me help her, I grew stronger until now...now, I have more control than she does. So while I do not have a vessel of my own yet, I would like to think that this is a magnificent start."

As she finished, Morgana noticed the disquiet expressions on her subordinates' faces. They weren't quite sure what to think of her. A surging anger bubbled within her, that these people she had led so studiously would now turn on her without a thought. Was it because she wasn't supposed to be alive? Was it because she wasn't Emma Swan? Was it because she was dark?

No! No! She was not dark. She may use dark magic, but only with the best of intentions. How could freeing people from their shackles be wrong? These people should be thanking her, all of them! These wretched mongrels should be on their knees, begging that she have mercy on them for even thinking of going against her! They should-

"If you are not Lady Emma, who are you?" one of the followers Morgana never bothered to know the name of asked.

"Well, the person that you have called 'Lady Emma' is merely an amalgamate of our two personalities combined. The real Emma Swan is not as… bold as I am. So I have been here all along, in the mannerisms she expressed and words she chose. I am not as different from the person you have seen as you might expect. But, that is not your question, is it?" Morgana clarified and the man nodded in agreement.

"My name in my previous life was Morgana, but history has remembered me as Morgan le Fay."

The confusion on her subordinates' faces quickly morphed to one of dread as they realized who she was. That was the look she was used to for so long when she led armies. The look that plainly showed their fear and respect of her and her powers. History did her justice in describing how powerful she was; in fact, they probably embellished it. At this point, a little demonstration was necessary.

With a smirk, Morgana whispered a few words and her eyes flashed golden as dark magic around her did her bidding. It entered the minds of each member there and while they flinched or tried to flee, its hold took grasp of their minds. This wasn't about mind control, though, even if Morgana could do that; it was about connecting their minds together so she could show them a memory. She contemplated for a moment which memory to show them and almost chose her last one before another surfaced in her mind.

The moment Merlin betrayed her.

This, she felt, would show them why her resolve was so strong. Why, even after being killed, she refused to perish and clung to life. Because their minds were linked up, they would see the memory from her eyes, feel what she was feeling, both physically and emotionally. The clashing of swords outside their door as her brother fought off the Knights of Medhir. Her own racing pulse as she wondered if they would live through this. Merlin's insistent offers that she drink the water. Her throat closing up and fear and betrayal settling in as she realized it was poisoned. That her dearest friend had condemned her to death. Her pleas for help, pain-filled and weak, but strong enough to go through a telepathic link that reached her sister. Morgause must have saved her, because she later woke up in her arms, her sister's face relieved but troubled. The pain of Merlin's betrayal hit her again, and she swore that she would do everything she could to get revenge by helping Morgause take Camelot.

As the memory ended, Morgana was still reeling from the emotions, the pain never easier to bear no matter how much time had passed.

"Lady Morgana," Alan started, her spirits lifting a little at the use of her true name, "what was that memory?"

"It was me, before I became dark. When I still harbored hope and valued friendship, but that incident was the start of my descent into the dark arts. That was Merlin, and he was once a friend of mine… until he tried to poison me and killed my sister." Morgana could feel the rage bubble inside her as her vision narrowed to a small patch of grass, oblivious to her surroundings for a moment. She stayed that way until a soft breeze tickled her neck and reminded her why she was here.

"I brought you all here to show you who I am and why this fight is important to me. In that memory, Merlin was just a mere servant, hiding his magic for fear of execution. Even he hid his magic because he was afraid, and for all the power that he had he never used it to help others like himself, like me. I won't be like that. I will stand up for my beliefs and fight for them, and I ask that you follow me in my quest."

Morgana finished her speech looking around at the dozen men and women she had brought, each an exceptional witch or wizard in their own right. They each contemplated her words in their own way, some deciding quickly and others taking a minute to think deeply on the matter. Her favorite, Alan, took his time to think it over, his gaze sweeping the ground in front of him before he finally came to a decision, one of the last to do so.

"I will stand by you, Lady Morgana," he said at last and bowed his head. The sentiment was not lost on her and again she was glad she had chosen him as her right hand man.

"So will I," one of the women said, a dark haired woman that reminded Morgana of her real self, and bowed as well. Soon the rest of the group followed and bowed, affirming in their own way that they would follow her. Whether they agreed with her ideals or feared her, Morgana did not know nor did she care. She needed people right now, and would take all who would follow her.

"Thank you," Morgana began as she tried to find more words to say, but was interrupted by a clapping sound behind her.

"That was a rousing speech, Morgana."

On high alert now, Morgana twisted behind her with her arm raised, poised to attack the intruder. Her followers mimicked her actions with their wands and a surge of pride swept through her that they would react so quickly. Any feelings she had though were blown out of her mind when she saw who stood before her.

The woman looked too much like Morgause to be a coincidence. She had the same dirty blond hair in curls and held herself much the same way. Her eyes were a deep shade of brown, rimmed by dark eyebrows. She had high cheekbones on an oval face, her lips set in a soft smile, the one Morgause would give her whenever she had mastered a new spell. Morgana's hand faltered for a second before she renewed her strength and stared this woman down.

"Who are you and how did you find this place?"

"I have seen this area many times in my dreams, the place where I bring my sisters back to me," the woman answered evasively. Morgana wanted to tell her to answer the question clearly, but something in her words set off a spark.

"Sisters?" Morgana echoed in disbelief. The woman's smile grew wider.

"Yes, I have two sisters, Morgause and Morgana. They were lost to me many years ago and I've been working hard to bring them back."

"Who are you?" Morgana yelled, her composure slipping. Her pulse pounded in her ears, faster and faster it raced. There's no way this woman was who she thought, but maybe…..

"My name is Elaine, and I've waited many years to meet you Morgana," Morgana's breath caught in her throat, but Elaine continued on, "I've regretted so many times never travelling to Camelot to help you and our sister. I had my own kingdom to run and thought you two would be enough. When I heard of Morgause's passing, I tried to find you but war had broken out and I could not leave. By the time things had settled down, I had lost you, too. But I saw a vision of the future, of now, when I could bring you both back and I've worked tirelessly since that day to restore my family. Please, you must believe me."

Morgana could feel all eyes on her, Elaine's pleading for understanding and her followers looking for direction, but her mind was reeling with all this new information. Morgause once said they had an older sister that was married off and sent to a faraway kingdom to protect her from the purge, but they had never met before. Elaine was not adept at magic, except for the art of seeing. Still, she had magic and would have been killed. Morgause said that she sent funds to her as often as she could sneak them away, but that she had become queen of a kingdom and could not abandon it. Morgana understood.

But now, she was here. She was here and she was going to help get rid of this vessel and restore not only her life, but Morgause's as well? It didn't cross her mind that this might be trap; no one else besides Merlin could know of these things and Merlin wasn't the type to lay traps like this. Poison maybe, but not outright manipulation; that was more her style.

Morgana lowered her hand as a smirk graced her lips, "So, what do we have to do, sister?"

* * *

HERMIONE

Hermione was positive she was dreaming. Even though she chastised Ron about his outburst of disbelief, she couldn't help but echo the sentiment. Was this person really Merlin? The man said to embody magic itself, the most powerful wizard in history? That Merlin? She wanted to believe him, truly she did, but her realistic side overpowered her faith and would not let her accept him as Merlin just yet.

"You have a plan?" said Captain Hook much to her disbelief. Hermione still wasn't over the fact that Captain Hook from the fairy tales she'd read as a child was standing next to her… as a hero of sorts, no less. He was a villain as far she knew, but clearly this was a different version of that man.

"Yes, I have known about Emma being the Dark One since it happened, but I alone did not have the power to stop her. I have been gathering… items that will help me put an end to this once and for all."

"Dark One?" Hermione repeated, lost as to what this term meant even as Ron beside her echoed, "You're not powerful enough?!"

"Er," Merlin faltered as to whom he should address first before Harry stepped in to decide.

"Why don't you tell us more about this Dark One."

"Right. So, uh, a long time ago, I fought a sorceress named Morgana. We had dueled on and off for years as she tried to take over Camelot, before I finally defeated her. However, I was not strong enough at the time to destroy the darkness she held completely, and instead tethered it to a dagger to contain it. To make sure this evil never returned, I cast it away into a pocket dimension of my own design. For years, it sat there, until this dimension became a world of its own and the darkness roamed freely within it, growing stronger. You all know of this world through fairy tales like Cinderella and Snow White…..well, muggles do, anyway….it's called the Enchanted Forest. But, uh….oh right, back to the darkness...very recently, The Dark One, the vessel that carried Morgana's spirit through the dagger, arrived back in this world and took Emma Swan as her host. Now, Morgana aims to get revenge on me, or take over England, or even the world…...not entirely sure what her endgame is, actually, but I'm willing to bet it's not good."

Hermione considered herself a smart person, but even she had trouble following that. Her mind blanked out for a second before a torrent of questions rushed in. Pocket dimensions? That turned into their own worlds? Escaping that somehow? Her head was spinning as she furiously tried to put all of these things together to make some sense of it, but came up short. She couldn't even begin to form questions to get a clearer picture, her mind was so muddled by what he'd said.

"Again, I ask...not powerful enough?!" Ron exclaimed as the first one to regain his voice.

"Er yeah, Morgana was a really powerful sorceress-is _still_ a powerful sorceress."

"You said you were gathering items to stop her…..do you have all of them?" Hook asked, bringing everyone back to the main point of this conversation.

"Oh yes! I just finished with the last item. Now I just need to combine some things together, cast a spell and everything should be all set."

"You make it sound so easy," Ron muttered, but Hermione still heard him and shot him a look.

"The hardest part was researching what I would need. Most of the items I've gathered didn't exist when I fought Morgana the first time."

"Such as?" Harry prompted.

"Well, this for one," Merlin reached into his pocket and pulled out the Elder Wand. Hermione's brain hiccupped for a moment as the implications of him holding that wand sunk in.

"You raided Dumbledore's grave?"

Merlin flinched at the accusation in her voice and looked at her sheepishly with a small smile before saying, "Yes? I had to, this was the only wand powerful enough for the spell I needed. Not even my staff conducts magic as well as this wand. Right, well I need to fortify a sword now, and after that we'll track Morgana down and put an end to this. Be right back."

Merlin left with a little nod of his head and to Hermione's surprise, Neville trotted after him.

Clearly she was dreaming and would wake up soon. This was all too much for her to handle at once. Not even learning she was a witch when she was eleven was as big of a shock to her as this. Around her, people came to their senses slowly and started talking about what just happened, but her brain was on strike at the moment. Instead of the torrent of questions that she couldn't grasp onto earlier, now all she could process was silence, an echo of "How is this even real?" reverberating in the background.

And then a hand was on her shoulder and a voice, Ron's, prompted, "Hermione, dear?"

"I'm fine," was her knee-jerk reply, and even she winced at how hollow it sounded.

"It is a lot to take in, isn't it?" Harry agreed with her and Hermione felt her brain rebooting. She would need her wits if they were going to face the most powerful dark magic user in history. As her brain went back online, she caught sight of Captain Hook talking on a cell phone (which was incredibly disconcerting in its own right, but she could put that off for later).

"Regina, you picked up… yes, I'm alive, how's Henry?… you split up?!... you left Snow and Charming alone with that witch? They don't have magic, what if… Oh yeah about that, I found Merlin..." here Hook pulled the phone away from his ear and Hermione almost laughed because it sounded like a howler had gone off on the other end of the phone, "Bloody hell, blow my ear off why don't ya?... aye, he's in the next room… not quite sure where we are…"

"Diagon Alley," Hermione immediately answered his unspoken question, to which he gave her a slight nod of thanks.

"A shop in Diagon Alley… I don't know, we just teleported in here… Henry? How're you doing… tell Merlin about Elaine? Why… she's Morgana's sister?"

"Who's Elaine?" Ron whispered to Hermione.

"She's sometimes listed in Arthurian legend as the older sister to Morgana and Morgause. She married the king of another kingdom and never involved herself with Camelot," Hermione recited from memory. Ron gave her an incredulous look before he leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

"I love that big brain of yours." Hermione almost blushed at the compliment, despite being an adult woman now. She was always so used to him making fun of her for her intellect when they were at Hogwarts, but now that they were older, he would say things like that and remind her that he really did grow up.

"Okay, the sword should be ready now," Merlin walked out from the back, cradling a sword in his arms.

"Okay, bye Henry, I'll call you back when we have a plan, stay safe," Hook finished his phone call and turned to Merlin, "Do you know a woman named Elaine?"

"Elaine… I've known a lot of people in the thousand years I've been alive, so you'll have to be a bit more specific."

"Right, sorry….Morgana's sister Elaine." Hermione could tell by the dumbfounded look on his face that he didn't and she bit her lip in nervousness. This could not bode well for them.

"No…..I don't, actually. Though that seems like something I really should…..why do you ask?"

"Because she's alive in this time period. Came to Storybrooke claiming to have seen the future of Emma becoming the Dark One and froze herself in time to come here to help free her of the darkness."

"Oh, this really does feel like old times again," Merlin muttered to himself and Hermione couldn't help but echo the sentiment. She was supposed to be behind a desk doing research, putting cases together- _not_ on the field again fighting dark magic. But here she was in the thick of things once more-and she couldn't be happier.

"Right, so what do we have to do?"

* * *

MERLIN

Merlin was feeling nervous. Which was an odd thing for a warlock of over a thousand years to feel, but it was true. For once, he didn't have all the answers. He wasn't sure how this would all play out. The earth had stopped guiding him once the Dark One came into this realm again, just giving him vague notions of what to do. He supposed it was because he was playing a more active role now, not helping from the sidelines anymore.

He pushed his worries to the back of his mind as the transportation spell finished and everyone alighted in a densely packed forest, untouched by time. His comrades landed with varying degrees of motion sickness, the wizards all used to it, including Regina, but Hook, Henry, and Robin Hood looked a little green. They had decided to pick up Henry and the others after the phone conversation since they knew Elaine the best and Regina was a powerful sorceress. Merlin cast a protection spell over Henry as he steadied himself, and Regina told him to stay back and out of the fight. Reluctantly, the boy agreed.

"Everyone understand the plan?" Merlin asked as the former Hogwarts students began doing some preparation magic for everyone; they wanted Merlin to save the bulk of his magic for Morgana.

"Yeah, we all got it," Ron spoke up and others around him nodded in agreement.

"Alright, well, I've never led anyone into battle before….that was always Arthur's job, but I guess I can say some inspiring words. Er, let's see. Fight bravely, protect each other, and make sure to come out alive."

There was an awkward pause for a moment and Merlin wondered if he had said something wrong. That was basically what Arthur always said, though perhaps in more eloquent words. Did eloquent words really matter that much?

Then the witches and wizards to his left started laughing to varying degrees. So that was a yes.

"Oh man, that brings me back to Hogwarts," Ron declared, an arm slung over Harry's shoulder.

"Reminds me of Dumbledore right before the welcome feast," Harry chimed in.

"Seriously guys, it's not polite to laugh," Hermione chided, but Merlin saw that she too was hiding a smile.

"Probably best to leave the inspirational speeches to Arthur then, mate," Hook said from Merlin's right, and it was only then he realized that even they were holding back laughter.

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad!"

"It kind of was," Henry told him in between small chuckles.

Merlin tried to pretend to be annoyed with all of them, but couldn't quite manage it. It had been far too long since he just laughed with people he could call friends. People that knew who he was anyway. So instead, he decided to cherish the moment. Let everyone relax for a bit before they took on the most powerful dark magic user…..ever, actually. So yeah, they could use a few laughs right now.

"Okay, okay, if you're all done, we have a job to do." Immediately, everyone remembered the gravity of the situation and the laughter died down. Satisfied they were all ready, Merlin led them through the forest to the point he felt the dark magic the strongest. Ironically, it was near the point where Morgana died. He pondered vaguely if she had planned it that way, but decided in the end it didn't matter.

As Merlin stepped into the clearing, Lake Avalon off to the right and forest to his left, a few things became immediately obvious. One, they had more people than he did, and they were all experienced witches and wizards. Two, they were all pointed in his direction with their wands up, waiting for them to arrive. And three, just behind them, Merlin could see a blond haired woman who must be Elaine working over a large cauldron, large enough for a person to sit in. Emma stood behind it, but Merlin detected something off about her….from the way she carried herself to the evil smirk on her face, he could see that Morgana was in complete control over Emma now.

Elaine's words drifted to them through the silence, "Bone of the mother, unknowingly given, you will renew your daughters."

Merlin heard a gasp from behind him and turned to see Harry nearly paralyzed in fear.

"Harry, what's wrong?"

Harry hesitated a moment before choking out his response, "It's the ceremony… the one that brought Voldemort back." Merlin turned back to the ceremony as Elaine dropped a ring inside the cauldron, a billow of smoke erupting.

"Everyone, go!" Merlin shouted, spurring his friends into action.

Despite Regina and Robin Hood having never battled alongside Harry and his crew, they came together flawlessly. Regina and Robin Hood took the offensive, raining fire and arrows down on their enemies who took great care to dodge both. Harry, Ron and Neville faced them head on, disarming them and using other attack spells. That left Hermione and Draco to provide support, erecting shields and conjuring counter-curses as necessary.

The other side had a similar strategy with separating attack and defense, but they also had more people. They had a similar number of defensive witches and wizards, and devoted the rest to offense, really testing Hermione and Draco's ability to defend. It would be a hard battle, but Merlin didn't have time to watch it all unfold.

He had to stop Elaine from resurrecting Morgana.

Skirting around the battle to his right, he kept his eye on the ceremony, absently blocking spells the others tried to fire at him. Morgana watched him the whole way and he knew that if he tried to attack her subordinates, she'd stop him immediately. She wanted another chance to fight him, and if he was being honest with himself, so did he. But he didn't have time for that, didn't have time for anything. He had to stop that ceremony, he had to-

All of a sudden, Merlin's strength was sapped from him. His legs crumpled underneath him, no longer able to support his body that felt as though it were made of lead. He tried to catch his breath, but that too came out in ragged gasps. Each was painful and short. Heck, everything was painful and he had no idea why. He glanced up to see Morgana smirking at him, which was a rather unsettling look on Emma's face.

"What's the matter, Merlin? Lost all your strength?"

"What did….you….do…?" Merlin managed to gasp out.

"Nothing much, really. It's your own fault. It's a spell that turns your own magic against you. Everything that made you so powerful is now tying you down. How does it feel, Merlin, to be so powerless…again?" Morgana taunted.

Merlin wanted to respond, despite the fact that talking burned his throat and made spots dance in his vision, but then Elaine cried out in agony. Morgana immediately went to her sister and cast a healing spell as Elaine spoke the next part of the ceremony.

"Flesh of the sister, willingly given, you will revive your family." Merlin fought the urge to vomit as he watched her throw in what could only have been one of her arms. As Morgana finished checking on her sister, she turned to him with a piercing stare before she broke out in a maniacal grin. It was only then that Merlin remembered what the next part of the spell called for. Blood of the enemy. His blood.

Morgana helped Elaine walk over to him, blocking any stray spells that flew their way, before she stopped and let Elaine walk on her own. That must be where the spell he was in ended then. He could see Elaine stagger as she walked, clutching the stump of her left arm in pain. The wound was completely healed, courtesy of Morgana, but the lingering pain of cutting off your own arm had to be intense. He was surprised she could even walk with that spell going on, as she was only a seer and not a high priestess like her sister.

He had no time to ponder it, though, as Elaine knelt in front of him with a small knife and bowl in her right hand. She placed the bowl on the ground and set the knife next to it before reaching for his left hand. Merlin tried to pull away, and he managed to move about a centimeter before he was too exhausted, his arm far too heavy. He cursed himself for not seeing something like this. Helplessly, he let his hand be moved to the bowl where Elaine quickly cut him with the knife and let the blood drip off, gathering in the bowl now. Satisfied, she picked up the bowl and the knife and walked back to Morgana, who steadied her again.

Merlin tried to gather his magic together, but such an act only hurt him more. He couldn't reject magic though, it was in his very being. To try to expel the magic was….unthinkable.

Unable to watch the ceremony, he turned his attention to the other battle. Robin Hood was knocked out on the ground, but that only made Regina stronger, now holding nothing back as she fired spell after spell at their opponents. Ron was also on the ground, one of his legs badly injured, and joined Draco and Hermione on defense. The other team was worse off, with 5 or so injured and down, but even then they still had more people active.

"Blood of the enemy, forcibly taken, you will resurrect your foes."

It was only then a paralyzing realization hit Merlin. Foes? And Elaine had said sisters before, didn't she? Did that mean…...were they possibly…?

"Yes, Merlin, looks like you've finally figured it out," Morgana taunted and he could tell she was enjoying the distraught look on his face too much, "I'm not the only one coming back today. Our other sister is, too."

Morgana reached into a pocket of hers and pulled out a small black stone, showing it off for him to see. The Resurrection Stone.

"It was dreadfully easy to find this, once Elaine told me where it was. She showed me a picture in her mirror of a dark forest with a little stone, I teleported there, located the stone and then brought it back. Really, who just leaves such important magical objects-"

Morgana was cut off from her monologue when a sword was plunged through her stomach, seemingly from nowhere. Merlin knew better though, it was actually Hook wearing Harry's invisibility cloak. Not even Morgana could detect someone through that, made as it was in another world altogether. Morgana fell to the ground in pain and Merlin waited for the evil to be expelled from her. Exchailen, with the enchantments he made over it, should not physically harm Emma and instead pass through her as it kills the Darkness within.

"Sister!" Elaine cried out as Morgana flung a curse behind her wildly, hitting Hook with its widespread aim. Merlin saw him become visible before he hit a tree and went down.

Merlin didn't understand though, the Darkness should be leaving Emma's body. She should be free by now…..instead, it looked like the sword stabbed the Dark One magically, leaving no physical trace, but still a lot of pain. What had he missed? What had gone wrong?! This was supposed to work, and dammit he still couldn't move!

Merlin snapped back to his senses as Elaine took the stone from Morgana and turned it over thrice in her hand. As he feared, Morgause's spirit manifested beside her two sisters. This was turning out far worse than he could have anticipated. Not only did he have to deal with Morgana, but Morgause again as well?! It hard enough defeating her the first time, and now that Morgana had more control of her magic…..he didn't know if he could do this.

As he was lost in his musings, he missed Elaine chanting out the last part of the ceremony, throwing the resurrection stone and the Dark One's dagger into the cauldron. The battle to his side stopped as they all turned to watch the end of the ceremony. The cauldron bubbled over, hissing and fizzling as the energy crackled around it, bursting the whole cauldron into flames. The Resurrection Stone and the Dark One's dagger flew from the fire, suspended in the air as dark magic gathered around them. Merlin could feel himself gag at the mass amount of dark magic in the air, all of it being sucked to those two objects. In the corner of his vision, Morgana's soul left Emma's body and the blond girl passed out from the shock. The sisters' souls then joined the magic as it formed into two distinct masses around the objects, the storm of energy growing wilder. The masses grew, filling out into two humanoid shapes, the dark swirls raging, the air so polluted with darkness… and then it all stopped.

There, in front of him, were the two toughest enemies Merlin ever had to face. Morgana stood proud with her usually wild black hair now tamed into long, flowing curls; a velvety emerald gown, simple and unadorned, graced her pale frame. Morgause stood next to her, flexing her fingers in disbelief, smoothing out the silken skirt of her sky blue gown. She then went to help Elaine stand straight, exhausted as she was from the pain and exertion that spell took to cast.

Without any preamble, Morgana's eyes flashed gold as she waved her hand in front of her, knocking Harry and the rest of the fighters there to the ground instantly. As she turned her eyes to him, Merlin knew this was it. He was rendered completely immobile, all of his allies were down, the sword he thought would solve everything merely delayed the inevitable, and Morgana was as determined as ever to see him dead in the most painful way that she could imagine.

Merlin had no more tricks up his sleeve. They had outsmarted him in every way possible. He failed. Failed his new friends, the world, and even the ones he'd left behind. He had promised everyone that he would be alive to see Arthur rise again, and even carried with him at all times a vial containing Gwen's memories for that exact moment when her beloved returned. He was not supposed to die here, not now. He was supposed to see Arthur come back, had waited all these years for that, endured so much pain as he watched everyone die before him. Was it really meant to end like this? Had he been destined to fail all along…?

By the time he came down from his thoughts, Morgana stood in front of him, at the edge of the spell again, her sisters next to her. She was wearing that smirk again, but now it was on her real face and Merlin remembered how much pain she had caused everyone looking that exact same way. Except now, all of that malice was directed at him.

"You know, Merlin, I really want to drag this out, make it as painful as possible for you," Morgana taunted, "but as the Dark One for so many years, I've come to realize that gloating and delaying things for my own pleasure never quite work out in the end. I think I shall simply kill you and be done with it. What do you say, Merlin….are you ready to die?"

With all of his magic responding to his feelings of anger, Merlin was only more repressed than he was before, his magic working against him to bind his movements. No longer could he speak, his vocal cords too constricted to produce meaningful sounds. He could only do his best to glare, defiant to the end. Brave. Just like the Knights of Camelot.

"No? Are you sure?" Morgana jeered. "Well, if you won't say anything, allow me to…"

Morgana never finished her sentence. She, like everyone else there, was too distracted by the deafening roar of the lake to Merlin's right. Lake Avalon was rippling, as if a stone was thrown into the center of it and the lake fell silent again. And then the ripple's center moved, drawing closer to the shore. All eyes were glued to this, entranced by what was happening. The ripples grew in intensity as they drew closer, until a figure broke through the water's surface.

A young woman emerged from the lake, her long, brown hair glistening in the sun as her maroon gown trailed gracefully through the water behind her. Those on the shore remained motionless, stunned by the pensive yet ethereal gaze of the girl's dark eyes…..all those, except Merlin, of course. Recognizing the woman in front of him, his heart caught in his throat as he yearned to cry out her name.

Freya.

Despite the fact that he couldn't move, tears came to Merlin's eyes. Freya glided forward until she was waist-deep in the water, and Merlin could see something grasped in her hand. Slowly, she brought her hand out of the lake; she was carrying Excalibur. Merlin would have gasped if he'd had enough air as she held the gleaming sword in front of her patiently, the blade resting delicately on the palms of her hands. She smiled knowingly at Merlin as she motioned behind her with her eyes, and Merlin tore his gaze away from her to see more ripples in the surface.

No… it couldn't be… after all this time… But as the ripples drew closer and another figure broke through the surface of Lake Avalon, there was no doubt.

The Once and Future King was back.

* * *

Whew! Holy plot twists Batman! Plot twists everywhere, and yet more things are to come. This chapter did not want to be written, it rebelled against it with all its strength, but I fought back. Only the last part came easy, and that made sense because it had been the one scene I had planned since the beginning.

Also, I had to take a while to rethink some things since my friend and beta gave me something to add to the story, so I had to shuffle things a bit. It makes the story better, but I had to let my brain work through it before I jumped into this.

I hope you enjoyed it, leave a review if you did!


	7. Faithfully

Spoilers for all 3 fandoms up to end of HP (follows the books), end of Merlin, and end of season 4 for OUAT.

Summary: Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Neville, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D

A/N According to the Harry Potter wikia, Harry became the head auror at age 26. However, whatever site originally claimed this is gone, I personally think it is ridiculous that he is head auror at 26, he'd have been on the job for like 5 years at most, and even though it's a few years later, he's still not the head auror yet. Division leader, maybe, but not head auror.

Chapter 7: Faithfully

* * *

ARTHUR

Arthur was rather disoriented at the moment. His eyes were open, but everything around him was dark, or light-the best way to describe it was the absence of anything. His limbs felt light, unweighted, but he couldn't move them. It felt like he was sleeping, wrapped up in his bed with a comforter. The feeling was relaxing and he felt no need to be alarmed. He couldn't tell how long he had been feeling this way either. Perhaps it was a few minutes, maybe a few hours, perhaps days, weeks…..years even. He had no sense of time, and couldn't bring himself to care either. The weight of the world that usually rested on his shoulders was gone. He was free.

But then he heard a voice in the back of his mind, echoing something softly. It had been doing so for quite some time, but now it was loud enough to make out the words.

"Arthur," it whispered, "Arthur Pendragon. The Once and Future King. It is time. Wake up."

Arthur ignored the words in favor of this comfortable feeling. Whatever the voice wanted, it could surely wait. What could be more important than sleeping? He felt so peaceful right now…

"Arthur Pendragon. Wake up."

The voice was more insistent this time, but Arthur mentally shrugged it off. The voice tried once more and for the third time Arthur pushed it away. Why must it try to ruin his happiness? Wasn't he allowed to just relax for once? Apparently not, because the voice resounded in his head once more.

"WAKE UP."

The comfortable feeling vanished and Arthur was now suspended in… something. The freeness was still there, and his limbs were immobile, but he could hear his heart beating in his chest now. The sensation was foreign after going so long without it, but it also felt right. And slowly, feeling came back to his limbs and he put a hand to his throat, just to feel his beating heart. _Thump thump_ it went under his skin. He didn't know why he was so surprised to feel it, but he was. Had he been without it this whole time?

"Arthur Pendragon. It is time."

"Time for what?" Arthur tried to say, but the words only echoed in his mind. He didn't appear to have control over his voice yet, but with everything coming back to him now, he was sure it was only a matter of time.

"Time for you to realize your destiny."

"My destiny?" Arthur repeated, trying to grasp at his memories but failing to recall anything at all. It had been so long since he thought of anything. He was sure he had them though…

"To unite the land of Albion."

As the voice said this, memories flooded back to him. Snippets of a countryside view from a cliff, a grand lake, a magnificent castle and its town, friends and family he had. How could he have forgotten Camelot, his knights, Guinevere and Merlin?! What had happened?…..but his memories filled him in on that, too. He had died, struck down by Mordred at Camlann. Merlin-who, as it turned out, had been a warlock his whole life-tried to save him, but could not. If he was dead, though, how was any of this possible…..?

"You are the Once and Future King. You were always meant to return. It has always been your destiny to unite the land of Albion."

The words took away the freeness Arthur had been feeling, the weight of his destiny firmly on his shoulders once more. He instinctively knew there was no avoiding this. Even as he thought of disagreeing, the notion was brushed away. Not that Arthur Pendragon was ever one to back down from a challenge.

"But how?!" Arthur called out, his voice working once again. His arms and legs flailed as he tried to get his bearings, and was met with a sudden resistance. Curious, he opened his eyes and found that he was underwater. A part of him was alarmed at the sudden thought of drowning, but he felt no need to breathe. Perhaps this was the work of magic? It was then he noticed that he was dressed in his full armor, as he had been before entering the Battle of Camlann. Because of this, he sank to the bottom of whatever body of water he was in.

"Walk forward, Arthur Pendragon, and you will see. This is not your destiny to carry out alone. Now go, it is time."

Not wanting to stick around at the bottom anyway, Arthur listened to the voice and pressed onwards. He trudged slowly, his limbs heavy from the weight of the armor he wore. He could see the sunlight streaming in from above him, shafts of light and various fish dancing around him as he walked.

It all felt so surreal, to think he was dead and coming back again. Had anything changed in his absence, did Guinevere still rule over Camelot? Did she remarry? And Merlin… did he tell everyone of his magic? Was he accepted for it or was the practice of magic still banned? Each new thought he had gave him one more reason to walk forwards, to his destiny.

And then, at long last, his head broke the surface and he could breathe normally again. A quick survey revealed that he was in a lake; the shore ahead of him filled with people staring at him, and a woman waiting patiently for him with a sword-no, it couldn't be….but there it was, Excalibur in all its shining glory, resting in her hands. Fixated on his sword, Arthur strode forward and reverently picked it up, holding it up to the sun just to see its gleam.

"Welcome back, Arthur Pendragon," the woman said with a polite incline of her head. Looking up to meet her eyes, Arthur was startled to realize he recognized her. Not only was she the voice that had been talking to him earlier, she was the woman who had turned into the Bastet he battled so many years ago.

"You… but, I thought…"

"I did indeed die, but the Old Religion decided to take pity on Merlin, and instead of sending me through the veil, enlisted me to help Merlin fulfill his destiny. I guard the entrance to the realm of Avalon, where you have been residing for hundreds of years."

"Hundreds of years?! I've been gone for hundreds of years?!" Arthur exclaimed. But then everyone he knew would have been dead for a long time. He thought he would get the chance to see them again, but maybe he was wrong after all.

"Yes, but do not despair. You will not face the challenges that lie ahead alone . Two people will aid you in your journey to save Albion. One of them does not know of their part in this, and you will have to help them learn who they are. The other has been waiting for your return for a very, very long time."

The woman looked behind her to the shore with a wry smile as Arthur followed her gaze, wondering what she meant. He almost dropped Excalibur in shock.

Merlin.

Merlin was there on the shore, that piercing blue gaze fixed on him just the way Arthur's was. Relief that he was alive flooded through him, and the urge to rush over there and hug him or yell at him or just break down crying wreaked havoc in his heart. What do you say to someone who's apparently waited for you for hundreds of years? Thank you? That didn't seem to cover the depth of emotion this meant to him, but he didn't think any words did. He would have to try and say something though.

"ARTHUR?!" someone screeched before he could get the chance to say anything at all. Whipping his head to the side and readying his sword, he was met with none other than Morgana, Morgause, and a woman who, though clearly older, resembled them both.

"Sister, please calm down," Morgause said as she firmly set her hand on Morgana's shoulder. But Morgana pulled away from her and turned on Merlin, eyes wild and seething with rage.

"You planned this didn't you, Merlin? You planned to bring us here and have Arthur ambush us. Well it won't work! You're still trapped and I can still kill you!"

Arthur was moving the second Morgana started yelling. Whatever magic allowed him to breathe also prevented the water from clinging to him, so he was able to run through the water without it slowing him down. He only had one thought racing through his head-protect Merlin. If there was any way to repay the man for waiting, saving his life would be a good start.

He managed to get there as Morgana's eyes flashed gold and he put Excalibur in front of him to block the attack, a fireball, and instead sent it ricocheting off into the lake. He held his ground as he stared Morgana down, her fury evident as it ignited in her eyes.

For a few moments, neither one moved or dared to breathe, and then he saw her eyes swivel to something behind him. Curious, he took a quick glance back and saw a boy run forward from the bushes and wipe the ground with his foot a few feet away from Merlin. This must have had some larger effect Arthur wasn't aware of, because Merlin's body suddenly untensed and he managed to steady himself enough to stand.

Knowing that it was dangerous to leave Morgana unobserved, Arthur turned his head back to her and saw that her anger had only increased. She was looking more and more like the last time he saw her, with the unruly hair and savage glare, ready to maim or kill anyone in her way.

"NO!" she screamed and fired off a spell, but Merlin moved just as quickly and blocked it with one of his own. Oh right...Merlin had magic; that would still take some getting used to.

"Sister, we should retreat for now and regroup," Morgause advised. Morgana whipped her head around to glare at her, but Arthur could see the anger dying down as her more sensible side took over.

She turned back to face everyone else as she said, "Fine, but rest assured Merlin, this happy little reunion of yours won't last very long." With a wave of her hand, she, her sisters and those who must have been her followers vanished in a whirlwind. Sensing that the threat was over for now, Arthur dropped his stance and turned around to meet a very teary-eyed and overcome Merlin.

"Arthur… is that really…"

"Come on now Merlin, don't be such a girl," Arthur said before he could stop himself and think of better first words to say now that he'd come back from the dead. They were apparently the right ones, though, because Merlin smiled, that big goofy one that had become a rarity in the years they faced Morgana, but was one of the reasons Arthur liked having him as his manservant so much.

"I don't think I'm the only girl, then, sire," Merlin said and Arthur was about to question him when he realized he was crying, too. He put his free hand to his cheek in wonder and then laughed, causing more tears to fall down.

"Well, come here then, I'd have thought my manservant would know how to greet a friend properly."

That was all the incentive Merlin needed before the tears positively poured down his face and he launched himself at Arthur. Arthur caught him with a small _oomph_ as Merlin proceeded to hug him as if he were a child who was afraid and clutched their blanket for all the comfort it could provide. Tears stained his shirt, but if they were Merlin's or his, Arthur wasn't sure and he didn't quite care at the moment. He just wanted to be able to do something for the man who had surely gone through so much pain and suffering for his sake. If a simple hug could do that, Arthur was only too happy to oblige.

"I've waited so long… I didn't think you'd ever… I almost gave up hope…" Merlin mumbled into his shoulder between hiccups. Arthur let him ramble on about that for a while, letting him come to grips with the situation because Arthur knew he needed to do that, too, before he decided to speak up again.

"It's okay, Merlin. I'm right here. You've done a very good job."

Merlin laughed at that and pulled away, wiping his eyes to very little effect as he said, "I get a hug and a compliment? This must mean you're finally growing out of being a dollophead after all."

"Merlin?" Arthur said as he schooled his face into a more princely one, ignoring that fact that his eyes were still red from crying.

"Yes, sire?"

"Shut up." And then his façade broke and the two of them were laughing and crying again, Arthur's hand resting on Merlin's shoulder for support.

"I hate to break up this happy little reunion, but three very powerful sorceresses just escaped and are planning their next attack," a dark haired woman said as she half-carried someone to them.

Breaking away from their hug with a quiet cough, Arthur drew himself up to his full height and began to survey the situation. There were less than a dozen people there and while many were injured and a few unconscious, no one seemed dead at least. Arthur counted that as a job well done and thought over the woman's words as everyone around him grouped together.

Whatever Morgana and Morgause wanted, they would take their time to plan it out. While Morgana could be impulsive in her decisions, Morgause thought things through well in advance. He didn't know anything about their other sister, but considering that Morgause and Morgana should be dead, he had to believe that she too was a powerful witch to be able to resurrect them.

"We'll have some time to regroup and prepare ourselves," Arthur announced as people gathered around him and Merlin. "Morgause won't make a move right away. We can use that time to take stock of what we have and ask for any allies that could aid us in this battle. I don't know if magic is still strong these days, but the more magic users we can get, the better."

"I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?" a blond-haired man asked, a calculating look in his eyes as he took in Arthur's appearance with skepticism.

"My name is Arthur Pendragon, the Once and Future King of Albion." Their looks of surprise and disbelief were not lost on him; he could scarcely believe it himself.

"Can you prove it?" the man pressed, one of the few not outwardly showing his surprise, but he did cross his arms rather huffily.

"I can vouch for him," Merlin spoke up, "I have been kept alive these many years awaiting his return, and I can assure you without a doubt that this is Arthur Pendragon."

"Thank you, Merlin-"

"Royal Prat of Camelot." At this, Arthur turned to face Merlin's triumphant smile and responded back with a tight one of his own.

"Merlin?"

"Shut up?"

"Yes. Now, where was I?"

"We were going to plan what to do next," the woman from earlier reminded him, "but I think it would be best to go back to Merlin's place and regroup with some of our other allies before we continue our plans. There's a king and queen that should be included in this conversation."

"Right, well...do your thing, Merlin."

"Do my thing?" Merlin asked him with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, that thing you had been keeping from me for so long that would be extremely useful right now."

"Ohh, that thing." Merlin replied with a cheeky smile. Arthur briefly wondered if they still had stocks in this time period that he could throw Merlin into. The man was increasingly testing his patience.

"Yes, Merlin, that thing." Arthur knew then that even though hundreds of years had passed, Merlin was still one of his best friends. And together-along with whoever the other person was he needed to find-they would accomplish his destiny.

* * *

HARRY

Harry could hardly believe any of this was real. Morgana le Fay was plotting to terrorize London, and probably most of Britain. Merlin was still alive and just as powerful as all the rumors claimed him to be. And then Arthur Pendragon had just come back to life to lead the charge against his sister. The whole thing was absurd. Just as absurd, actually, as Snow White and Prince Charming and Captain Hook being real. When did his life suddenly change from reality to fantasy? Oh yeah, the day he turned eleven and discovered that magic was real.

The worst part was, there was no way his boss was going to believe him.

Harry liked Nicholas, everyone in the auror office did. He reminded Harry of Mr. Bagman, but without the sleaze and more muscle. His jaw was strong but his soft eyes belied his kindness and he laughed and talked loudly. He had no problems telling you exactly what he thought and he did his very best to be honest and upfront with people. It caused some friction at first, as he may not have been the best auror in the department, but he knew strategy and he knew how to talk to people. And when the office needed to be put back together, he was the one who stepped up to do it.

Harry had a great deal of respect for the man...but there was still no way he was going to believe him.

"You're saying that Morgana le Fay had possessed this Emma Swan woman and tried to recruit people to show muggles that magic exists? Then, you stumbled across Merlin and some muggle fairy tale characters who you worked together with to try and stop Morgana le Fay because she and one of her sisters were brought back to life by their third sister? And then King Arthur rose from the Lake of Avalon and drove away the sisters and wants our help in defeating them once and for all….?"

"Er, yes. That would… be the short version of what I said," Harry relented, not wanting to rehash the details again.

The Head Auror gave Harry a hard look, the one that was trying to determine if Harry was serious or if he was somehow lying about it. He had been on the receiving end of that look many times in giving his reports, usually when he omitted a detail about him or Ron messing up in some insignificant way, but the look always dragged out the truth. This time though, Harry didn't flinch; what he had said was the absolute truth...even if it didn't make much sense.

"Well then," Nicholas started, leaning back in his chair but maintaining eye contact, "We'll have to put the office on high alert."

Harry stared at his boss in disbelief, "You believe me?"

"Potter, you couldn't make something like that up if you tried. You're not exactly the most creative person or the best liar despite what you and Weasley think. It'll take me a while longer to get used to it, but facts are facts. There are evil witches on the loose and we need to protect our city. I'd like to talk to King Arthur and Merlin, too-see what we can put together." Nicholas sighed as he ran his hands through his hair and muttered, "I can't believe I just said that."

"Sir?" Harry prompted, trying not to smile at his boss' obviously flustered nature.

"Not a word, Potter. Just let me know when I can meet with them and we can get started."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

HENRY

Henry was desperately trying to stay awake. He was starting to regret advocating to stay with all of the adults as they made their plans to fight Morgana and her followers. It was all very interesting, sure, and he could probably learn a lot about strategy from listening to King Arthur speak, but he couldn't find it in him to pay attention. The drone reminded him too much of school, and while he enjoyed school, focusing wasn't his strongest suit. He could see that many of the others were as inattentive as he was, Hook being the most noticeable as he tipped back in his chair with his eyes closed. Others, like Regina, Snow and Charming, were fully immersed in the conversation, trying to work out what to do. The blond wizard also participated heavily in the conversation, but was much quieter and more succinct with his words. The brunette witch and Emma took a sideline approach, offering some words here and there, but listening intently for the most part.

The talk dragged on for almost two hours until King Arthur began to close the discussions.

"Okay, now that we've established our allies, supplies and equipment we'll need, defensive improvements, communication avenues, and offensive teams, there is something I must do on my own now."

"What's that?" Regina asked, and Henry could tell that she wasn't too pleased about the leader of their group suddenly skipping out on them.

"When I….came back from Avalon, the woman who brought me back-"

"Freya," Merlin quietly but firmly interrupted. Arthur nodded once and continued.

"Freya-she told me that two people would help me reunite Albion. The first was Merlin, of course, but the second she wouldn't say. I had been meaning to bring it up, but couldn't find the time before, and she didn't say who it was, so I don't-"

"She must mean Guinevere," Merlin interrupted again. At the name, many heads at the table turned, mouths dropping in almost comical astonishment. Henry was among them, having heard the tales of the famous romance between King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. None look more surprised than the king himself though, his face morphing from surprise to relief faster than Henry could blink.

"Guinevere. My Guinevere….she's alive?"

"Well, yes and no," Merlin said without explaining anything. Arthur looked ready to strangle Merlin when he leveled a silent look at him to explain the statement further. "After you had passed away, Guinevere became Queen of Camelot and repealed the ban on magic. It stayed that way for her entire reign and a tentative peace settled on the kingdom. As a thank you, the Triple Goddess bestowed a gift upon her, that she would come back, reincarnated, when you did. Without knowing when that was, though, trying to find her became harder and harder and soon I gave up altogether. But since you're here now, she must be too."

Immediately, King Arthur stood from the table, knocking into it and disturbing many of the papers it held. "We have to find her then." Henry found himself agreeing wholeheartedly, almost mimicking Arthur and standing up with him.

"We can use a locator spell," Emma piped in, "we'll just need something that belonged to her." Merlin nodded at her request, closed his eyes for a moment, and then summoned what appeared to be a ring to his hands with a small flick of the wrist. Henry stared in open amazement; he had seen the magic his moms could use, but this was magic of an entirely different caliber.

"This," Merlin gestured with his eyes to his hands, "was Guinevere's wedding ring." He turned to Arthur and continued, "Before she died, she made me promise to hold on to it. We had no way of knowing how you both would return, but we assumed the involvement of magic wouldn't make it easy. Gwen….she told me to give the ring to you when you came back. She wanted-needed you to know that she had faith in you, that you would find her after all this time…" Setting the ring gently into Arthur's outstretched palm, he whispered, "like you always do."

From where Henry stood, he could see that the ring was a simple silver band, garnished only by finely engraved floral patterns along the outside. But the way Arthur's bright blue eyes were staring longingly at it-the way he was cradling it as if it would shatter into a million pieces should it fall from his grasp….it was clear to Henry that this ring meant more to Arthur than any jewel or trinket found in all the lands.

Merlin smiled and encouragingly placed a hand on Arthur's shoulder. "If anything can help us find Gwen, this should do the trick." Never taking his eyes off the ring, Arthur carefully placed it into Regina's open hands.

"I'll take good care of it," the queen remarked as she reached into her bag and rifled around for a moment before pulling out a small glass vial. "You're lucky this is one of the few spells I usually carry on hand."

Henry watched as his mom uncorked the bottle and dumped the contents onto the ring. It floated in the air for a moment as the spell took effect and everyone waited with bated breath for it to move. But it did not.

"What's wrong with it?" Emma questioned, looking at Regina purposefully.

"I don't know, I'm sure that was the right spell, though…" They waited another couple of seconds before the ring twitched in a certain direction, not quite leaving Regina's hands.

"What's supposed to happen?" the brunette witch-Henry desperately searched his memory for her name but failed miserably-asked as everyone seemed to be waiting apprehensively.

"It should guide us to its owner, but…"

"But it can't," Merlin finished, his shoulders slumping.

"Why not?" Arthur asked.

"Did Freya mention anything else about finding Gwen?" Merlin asked instead of answering his question.

Arthur looked taken aback for a moment before he composed himself and replied, "Well, she said that the second person wouldn't know their part and that they'd need my help, but what does that mean?"

"It probably means that Gwen's memories of Camelot have been sealed to let her live a normal life."

"And?" Arthur prompted , crossing his arms in agitation. The scene would have been funny had the topic itself not been so serious.

"Magic isn't an exact science, not really. It can be… tricky at times. I think that because she's not technically Queen Guinevere, the magic can't find her."

Henry watched as the room fell into a slump at Merlin's words. They had all appeared so excited to find Guinevere, some more than others, that this setback left them all dismayed. Arthur seemed to have it the worst; hope to see his loved one dangled in front of him and then snatched away just like that. Henry couldn't leave it like this, not with everyone so defeated.

"Isn't there anything else we could do to find her?" Henry spoke up, mostly speaking to Merlin, but drawing everyone else's attention to him as well. Merlin stared at him for a moment, and Henry could see the ideas whirling through his mind before a grin spread across his face and Henry reflexively smiled back.

"Yes, yes! There is! Although, I'll need your help for it, Henry," Merlin said, already moving around the room and picking up paper from the table before stopping in front of him.

"Me?" Henry echoed.

"Yes, you. It's actually something only _you_ can do at the moment." Merlin smiled and Henry was suddenly struck with the incredulity of the situation. Merlin-the great and powerful warlock, Merlin-needed him for something. Henry wasn't about to let him down.

"Whatever you need."

"Good, do you have the pieces of the quill you broke?"

Henry's eyes widened at Merlin's words. Maybe he couldn't help him after all. Merlin wanted to restore the quill so Henry could write Guinevere's story and find her, but he broke the quill for a reason; it was too much power for any one person to hold. Bringing back that kind of power couldn't be good. But, it was Merlin who was asking, and Merlin who had made the quill. Could it really be that bad?

"I-I… I do, but…"

"Henry," Merlin said softly, putting a hand on his shoulder and giving it a tight squeeze, "what's wrong?"

"The quill.. it almost tore my family, and Storybrooke, apart. I broke it in half so it couldn't be misused again. If you restore it, the same thing could happen again, and I…"

"Henry, do you know why I created the quill in the first place?" Merlin prodded and Henry shook his head no. After a moment, Merlin took a deep breath and continued, "A long time ago, I banished the Dark One away into a small pocket dimension because I wasn't powerful enough at the time to destroy it. What I didn't know and couldn't anticipate is that this dimension would grow on its own, feeding off of the Dark One's magic. It became its own world, with people and places and things that don't exist here. As a sort of hobby, I wrote down what happened in them, creating some amazing stories along the way. During this, I realized that the darkness I had left there influenced these worlds, and then universes, and pushing them to an unbalanced state. And since my job here has always been to maintain the balance between its magical forces, I extended my domain to keep that balance in the worlds I had created, too. I created a new quill, one that would let me subtly influence these worlds and nudge them towards that balance.

"Eventually, there were too many worlds, too many universes for just me to handle, so I enchanted the quill to choose suitable people for me and give them the same power….which worked for hundreds of years until a few weeks ago when one of the authors went rogue. He overstepped the boundaries, influencing the worlds far more than he should have and creating an imbalance on his own. But, Henry, what you must understand is that the quill and the author… what they do is imperative for the sake of the universes. Without it, they will slowly but surely unravel and destroy themselves."

Merlin paused at the end of that, letting his words sink in, and Henry was grateful; he needed a moment or two to sort everything out. The authors' job was to keep the balance of the worlds, the ones Merlin created. Just how powerful was Merlin that he created worlds and universes on accident?! No, that wasn't important at the moment. What was important was, did Henry agree? Was the balance the quill was created to maintain worth the potential destruction the quill held? Henry looked up to his moms for guidance. Regina gave him an unreadable look, before she nodded, saying that the choice was his to make and Emma echoed the same sentiment with a small but cautious smile. They both trusted his decision.

"Well, Henry, will you take up the offer to be the author again and agree to do your best to keep the balance?" Merlin asked and Henry looked back at him to meet his eyes head on.

"Yes, yes I will," Henry affirmed before he reached into his bag and fished around for the two halves of the quill. He set them in Merlin's outstretched hand after a moment's hesitation. With a flash of gold and some words Henry didn't understand, the quill snapped together and a golden glow settled over it. Henry could feel the power in it, calling to him, begging him to use it. Was this because he was officially the author now?

"Here," Merlin said handing him the quill and the blank paper he had grabbed earlier, "if you could, could you write us the story of Guinevere, the Once and Future Queen?"

Henry nodded and put the paper down on the table, setting the quill above it. He knew just how to start it, just how all fairy tales started. He took a deep breath, mindful of everyone staring at him intently, and began to write.

"Once upon a time…"

* * *

And I'll end it there because the next chapter will cover what Guinevere has been up to. Yes, I know, Guinevere is back! Couldn't bring back Arthur and not Guinevere, it'd be too sad. Most of this is from my friend's head cannon of what happened, so thank you for that. It's been hard getting my head into this, and took several sessions of sitting down and writing quick spurts, but I finally got it done, hooray!

Review if you liked it, didn't like it or just want to say hi.


	8. Time After Time

Spoilers for all 3 fandoms up to end of HP (follows the books), end of Merlin, and end of season 4 for OUAT.

Summary: Emma becomes the dark one and starts to terrorize London, Merlin has to fix a couple thousand year-old wrong and Harry Potter has to battle another Dark Lord… Lady… Also starring: Henry, Snowing, Outlaw Queen, R/Hr, H/G, Neville, Elaine (kind of an OC), and other BBC Merlin chars later :D

Chapter 8: Time After Time

EMMA

Emma was feeling incredibly guilty. Ever since the Dark One relinquished control over her, Emma had this sense of….shame hanging over her. She hadn't felt this way since she was with Neal and they were doing all sorts of small-time criminal activities. The worst part was she didn't even know what to do about it.

Logically, she knew she should apologize to her family and everyone else that had helped. And she tried to, but it never felt like the right moment. "Sorry, Mom and Dad, I didn't mean to get a bunch of people killed and attempt to overthrow an entire magical government." It sounded bad in her head, let alone out loud. She had… tried to tell them… kind of. She wanted to, but when she woke up, everyone was getting ready for what appeared to be a war council. And she couldn't interrupt that.

Now, the war meeting was over, most of the witches and wizards left, and everyone was waiting around as Merlin taught Henry more about being the Author and let him write the story of Guinevere. Who was a real person. If she hadn't already been through this process, she was sure that would impress her, but now it didn't. The overwhelming sense of guilt she had blocked out any surprise she might be feeling.

So she was left with no choice but to confront her family.

"Mom, Dad," Emma started and she immediately gained the attention of not only her parents, but Regina, Hook and Robin as well, "I just wanna say… I'm sorry."

"Emma," Snow responded instantly, her lips forming into a sad smile, "you don't have to apologize, we know that wasn't really you. We're just glad that we could help you."

"No, you don't understand, it wasn't me, but it also was."

"What do you mean?" Regina stepped in, effectively cutting off anything Snow might have said to reassure her. Instead, she went to her husband and grabbed his hand in an almost unconscious gesture for comfort. Hook must have sensed the tension that was building up, too, because he came over and put his non-hooked hand on her shoulder. Emma gave him an encouraging smile before she continued on.

"The Dark One, Morgana, never… forced me into doing something. She definitely tried, but I was able to stop her from, you know, coming back here and… well… I stopped her. I wanted to find Merlin, but she'd scream my head off every time I so much as thought about it, so I gave up that idea. So I found a middle ground in touring magical London with her," Emma finished lamely, her hands hanging limply by her side after waving them around in explanation.

"What did she do then?" Hook asked quietly from beside her.

Emma shook her head as she responded, "Nothing, just talked to me."

"What'd she say?" Regina immediately countered and Emma resisted glowering at her friend.

"Just that she wanted to help London. It makes more sense now that I know she's Morgan Le Fay, but she was enraged at what the wizarding community in London was like. That it wasn't right for all those people to be hiding their gifts, living in fear of non-magical people."

"We don't do it because we're afraid of muggles," the blonde wizard… Dragon? No, Draco, said loudly and successfully interrupted the conversation, "we do it because…" but here he faltered as his brain rushed to think of answer.

"We do it because a long time ago, we were persecuted by muggles," Hermione answered, "Muggles were afraid of magic and instead of learning about it, sought to destroy it instead."

"No, we did it because muggles would abuse it if we ever gave it to them," Draco insisted, but Emma could tell he was saying it more to convince himself than anyone else. He didn't want to admit that they were hiding in fear, and Emma understood that.

"Draco," Hermione gave him a look and Emma nearly laughed as Draco flinched a little bit.

"Morgana thought like you did, Draco," Emma interrupted to save the poor man from Hermione's ire, "she didn't believe that the wizarding world should be afraid. She said that magic was a gift, to be used and shared with everyone. Not to be ashamed of and live in fear because of it."

"If I may," Merlin said as he walked over from the writing table to join the conversation, "when I was growing up, magic was banned under penalty of death in most places. Sorcerers and sorceresses hid their magic, and told their children to lest they be killed for it. Morgana was the ward of the man leading this crusade, Uther Pendragon. She grew into her magic late, and didn't understand what was happening to her. Her sister, Morgause, taught her how to use her magic and control it, but Morgause used her magic for revenge against Uther and passed that hate down to her sister. Morgana made it her mission to take the throne of Camelot and let magic be free."

"What happened?" Snow asked, and Emma realized that everyone save Arthur was waiting on Merlin's word to finish the story.

"Her hate grew too much for her. She gave in to dark magic and let it consume her, losing sight of what she originally wanted. In the end, she just wanted to kill Arthur and anyone that would stop her from taking her "rightful place" as the queen of Camelot. We fought many battles, and I was able to stop her, but not kill her. The hate she'd held on to transformed her soul into the Dark One and I sealed her away in the dagger and tossed it into another dimension, hoping that I'd never see it again."

"Well, that went just peachy then, didn't it?" Regina said sarcastically as Merlin shrugged helplessly.

"Yeah," Emma began, her thoughts swirling around her as some things finally clicked into place. "Morgana was angry at the muggles, but she was also angry at the wizarding community for hiding for so long. For giving up on their freedom."

"We haven't-" Draco responded instantly, as if on reflex, but a sharp elbow from Hermione hushed him.

"But under all that hate and madness were intense feelings of sadness and… guilt. Those were the things that convinced me to follow her. Yes there was that immense darkness and it scared me, but there was also a little light, just a spark. It was enough to show me how she truly cared for them and wanted to help, and I wanted to help them, too."

"Emma," Snow started, her voice soft. She squeezed her husband's hand tighter for reassurance, but Emma continued on.

"I know what it's like to be afraid of your own power. To know that what you do is so powerful, that no one could understand. And not using it hurts, too. That you could do something with it to help, but chose not to. But hiding it… hiding it from others just makes everything so much worse. The fear multiplies and swallows you whole until there's nothing left but that fear. So you just have to accept it, and let others know. You taught me that," Emma finished, looking up at her parents, Regina and Henry who had stopped writing for the moment to listen in.

Snow couldn't hold it in anymore and rushed forward to hug her daughter. The men in her life, Charming, Hook and Henry hung back looking proud and Regina scoffed at her friend's sappiness, but was smiling anyway.

Emma finally pried herself away from her mom, putting on her best smile, before her eyes landed on Merlin and Arthur. They both looked torn, eyebrows scrunched together and arms crossed, but from what she didn't know. They also avoided each other, choosing to stare at the ground or ceiling instead. Weren't they the best of friends, though? Emma was informed of their hug fest and tear filled reunion, but maybe there was more to the story than that. Maybe she wasn't the only one who had something they needed to get off their chest.

But with a long wait and dangerous battle ahead of them, there wasn't much time to spend reminiscing over feelings of the past. No, they had to get ready for war.

"Regina?" Emma asked and Regina's head turned away from Robin's to face her, "mind practicing magic with me for a bit?"

"Only if you're prepared to get beat, Swan." Emma smirked in acceptance of the challenge. This was going to be interesting.

JENNIFER

Jennifer was tired, but working 10 hours as a nursing assistant and knowing you still had at least 2 more left would do that to you. Not that she minded, working long hours never deterred her from a task, but it did sap her energy away like nothing else. She thanked whatever higher power invented coffee and the staff for re-stocking it constantly; she was sure the entire hospital lived off of coffee. That's where she found herself when she got the chance for a 15 minute break, holed up in the break room holding her cup like a lifeline. The bitter aroma did wonders to wake her up. Taking a breath, she took out the bun that held her massive curls and let them fall over her shoulder.

But as she sat there, more people filled in, gossiping about the new doctor they were getting and didn't that couple break up and oh no she did what, so Jen promptly excused herself and left the break room to go find a new sanctuary, the courtyard. She went through the main lobby, weaving in and out of people like it's her job – it sure felt like it some days – before she exited into the courtyard and selected her favorite bench by an old cherry tree.

She sipped at her coffee for a moment, enjoying the tranquility and peace until she spotted something unusual. A man in his late twenties had just burst through the main courtyard entrance, his head swiveling left and right as his eyes darted around the courtyard, searching for something. Absently, she noticed that he was rather muscular and toned; the tight t-shirt he wore was definitely a size too small. He ran a hand through his blond hair in exasperation, he must not be finding what he was looking for.

But above all that, something was familiar about him, like someone she went to school with a long time ago but couldn't quite place…

Regardless, if he was looking for a patient that had escaped, his son or daughter or parent, it was her job to help him. Putting aside her feelings of regret over not finishing her coffee, she dumped it into the nearest trash receptacle and walked over to him, putting on her friendliest face that got even uncooperative children to behave.

"Excuse me, sir, can I help you with something?"

Jen seriously thought her heart was going to stop when he looked at her; he had the most dazzling blue eyes and a brow that only intensified his look more. But something in his expression changed when their eyes met, for a brief moment she thought she saw surprise, and then it was gone. His expression changed to a somber one and he looked away, as if embarrassed by something.

"No, no. I just thought I saw someone," he answered slowly, as if choosing his words carefully.

"Well, if you need help looking for them, I'm still on break for another few minutes or so. I could help you." He looked back up at her, and Jen could read all the emotions this man had like he was an open book, which was weird because she could never do that before. She had always struggled to try and figure out how to belong, connecting with people was difficult for her, almost like she was misplaced at birth. But with him, she knew it in a heartbeat. That he was about to say no because of his pride when he really did need her help.

"I couldn't ask you to-"

"Please, I insist," Jen told him and patted his arm gently. He took a deep breath before he nodded and acquiesced to her forceful kindness. "Now who are we looking for?"

"My… my wife," and Jennifer didn't miss the sob in his throat that nearly escaped or the far off look in his eyes, "She's around your height with dark hair and skin, but she usually wears her hair up and out of her face. The last I saw her… she was wearing a comfortable nightgown, white with gold trim and flowers."

And then it hit Jennifer, why he tried to refuse her and why his voice was so somber. He already knew he wouldn't find his wife, that he was chasing a phantom of her that he kept in his head. She must have disappeared recently, gone but never pronounced dead. And without the closure of it, he sees her everywhere. It's why he looked so frantic but wasn't saying anyone's name, why the other nurses weren't helping him...none of the patients were actually missing. It was just a man who couldn't find closure over the death of a loved one.

"Well, let's look for her, shall we? I'm Jennifer by the way," she held out her hand for him to take.

"Arthur," he responded and shook her hand firmly, a sad sort of smile on his face.

Jennifer led him through the halls of the hospital, and they talked amiably about nothing for a while, just going back and forth. Arthur was a very unusual man to say the least. Whenever she asked him questions about his life, he either avoided them or gave her the weirdest answers.

"What do you do for a living, Arthur?"

"I'm… a diplomat."

"You're in amazing shape, what do you do to work out?"

"Swordsmanship."

"Where did you grow up?"

"… Newport."

Newport itself wasn't such a strange answer, but he hesitated for a while before saying it, like he couldn't quite remember the name. Jen asked him if he moved around a lot, but when he said no, she threw the idea that he was trying to settle on one of many places as an option. But the most interesting conversation she had with him came at the end of their journey, when she led him back to the courtyard and they sat down on the bench by the cherry tree.

"Arthur, what was your wife like?"

He didn't answer her at first. His eyes got that far away look in them again, caught up in his own world as he relived the memories of who she was. He looked so sad, but also a happy as he sat next to her, reflecting on the time he spent with his wife. Jen waited patiently for him to answer, knowing that it must be difficult for him. But she also knew that confronting him like this would be good for him, maybe help him get a little bit of the closure he needed.

"She was strong, but beautiful. And stubborn, but she had to be just to match my own stubbornness," he paused here as he tried to come up with the best way to start the story, "she worked in my house as a… maid. I actually came from a rather wealthy family and was quite spoiled in my youth. She never let me get away with anything though, and would tell me straight to my face when I was being a dollophead."

"Dollophead?" Jen questioned with a small laugh. Arthur broke his serious mood for a moment to laugh, too.

"It's a word my friend made up for me, I forget others don't quite understand it. He says I'm the definition of it, too when I ask him what it means." Jen couldn't suppress the smile she had, taking it to mean that this was a close friend of his that he treasured dearly.

"Anyway, she was the one that kept my head on straight most days and helped me grow out of the spoiled brat I was. But for all her fierceness with that, she was immensely kind. Always willing to lend a helping hand, even to complete strangers at the cost of a well-earned break. She reminded me on an almost daily basis to look out for everyone around me and never take them for granted with her simple gestures and acts of kindness."

"She worked hard at her job, so it was quite the predicament we found ourselves in when we realized we loved each other. My father wouldn't hear of it, me in love with one of our maids. Said it was just a passing fancy, that it wouldn't last. I was too afraid of my father to continue our relationship publicly, but we endured it somehow. She had endless amounts of patience, which I must have stretched to the limits constantly, but still she waited for me to become the man she knew I would, and I think I lived up to her expectations. We married a few years later…" and his gaze drifted off and Jennifer could almost see the picture he had in his head. A room like a castle decorated floor to ceiling is red velvet and gold adornments, and everyone he knew gathered to see the ceremony. His wife, she wore a gorgeous gown of purple and gold that was heavy, so heavy with both the weight and the commitment she was about to enter into…

"Oh, but don't get me wrong, she could get angry like anyone else. Because again, she was kind, so if she was angry then someone was truly being a… dollophead. But she always did it with a level head, told them exactly what they were messing up on, and sought to help them fix it."

Jennifer listened to him talk about his wife with rapt attention, and couldn't help but fall in love with it, too. The way he talked about her, the dreamy look in his eyes, it was clear to see that she must have been an amazing woman, for this man to love her so much. And despite her best efforts, Jen found herself jealous of it. Wishing she could have that kind of devotion, too. Who wouldn't? The more he talked about her, the better picture she got of this woman he loved. The strength and beauty he talked about, Jen found herself wishing she could be like his wife. The serenity to deal with her coworkers and patients regularly, the strength to speak her mind when she had something to say, the courage to help those in need when she saw them. All these things his wife embodied, she wished she could do that half as well.

"And above all else, she was beautiful. She fought with her curly hair constantly, always telling me how it never cooperated with her, but I loved running my fingers through it. Her hands were usually calloused from working, but the rest of her dark skin was smooth because she believed that it was important to take good care of herself. She was never one to wear fancy clothing, but still wore the jewelry I gave her just because. I don't know if she ever believed me when I told her that despite the gifts, I still thought her best accessory was her smile. And her eyes… they always looked right at you when she spoke to you, so I could always see her compassion and strength in them, and I never tired of it. They actually look kind of like yours."

"Hm?" Jen responded oh so intelligently after being lost in his description for so long. She was lost in dreams of fancy dresses, swirling around her ankles as she walked along a castle floor. It took her a moment to realize he was staring at her, but when she locked eyes with him, she was surprised to see that the sadness she saw earlier was gone.

"Her eyes were a darker shade of brown just like yours," he reiterated for emphasis.

"Oh, really?"

"Yes," he confirmed as he reached over to brush something out of her hair, probably a leaf from the cherry tree. It was that time of year after all. Jen tried to distract herself with looking at the tree, but he was still staring at her intently, causing a small blush to rise in her cheeks.

"Is there something else in my hair?" Jen asked hesitantly, but regretted it immediately as the intensity of his stare died and the slight frown came back as he shook his head no. Was there anything she could do to make him smile again? He seemed so happy just now, like he had caught a glimpse of his wife again. Perhaps talking about her more would help. And then Jen realized she had never gotten an answer to a very important question; his wife's name. When she had asked earlier, he had just told her that he'd recognize his wife on sight and avoided it. Maybe if she asked now…

"You never did tell me your wife's name." Abruptly, his expressions changed again and she could read something else in there now, something she had probably been seeing unconsciously for a while but now she had a word for it. Hopeful. Jen watched with baited breath as he steeled himself to respond, like her reaction could make or break him. She could only hope that she wouldn't let him down, she wanted him to be happy again, to get the smile back that she had seen earlier when he looked into her eyes. She felt like she would do anything she could if it could help him right now.

"Guinevere."

Jennifer didn't know why, but him saying that name with the intensity he did sent shivers down her spine. She had the weirdest impression of him saying that to his wife in that tone, of sitting in a candlelit room, hundreds of candles all around her and him there across from her. He had the same earnest look on his face then as he did now, a question on his lips but not the one he had back then. What was that question though, and why could she remember it?

All throughout his talking, snippets of dreams or memories came to her. Fantasies of a kingdom long gone and a prince in love, but too stubborn to admit it. Of a woman in love, too stubborn to let him say no. Whose memories was she seeing? His wife's? But how…

A deep melancholy set inside Jennifer at that point, a longing ache that she could not stop. A pull towards the man in front of… towards Arthur. Her heart raced in her chest as tried to put this all together. A pounding was starting in her heart, her mind trying to catch up to what her heart already felt, already knew. And before she could stop herself, she whispered it.

"Arthur."

She looked up to meet his eyes, staring so earnestly into her own. And while not everything was there, the feeling was. The burning in her chest that felt so familiar. She had lived without it for so many years, but now it was back in full force. Hesitantly, she reached up to touch his face, and traced the lines that her fingers knew instinctively. The lines she must have traced many times before but could not remember. She knew, but did not know. Could feel, but it was not yet her own feelings. And in a burst of clarity she knew how to fill the gap. Slowly, with her heart pounding in her ears and her fingers cold on his warm cheek, she leaned in forward. Unsurprisingly to her, he moved closer, too, and she was sure his heart beat would be just as loud as hers. Despite the fact they've done this many times before, it was still the first for her, for them. A second chance at a first kiss.

As soon as their lips touched, a warmth spread over her body. A tingling sensation that began at her lips and traveled down to her toes. She broke the kiss as her memories solidified in her head. Snatches of rides through the forest on horseback, carrying trays of food, working with her dad and brother, joking with Merlin, waking up in bed next to Arthur, holding his hand, kissing him…

The pounding in her head subsided as the storm calmed down and as the memories slid into place in her mind. She had been reincarnated as a gift for bringing magic back, but her memories were sealed away. She had been working as a nurse in hospital, but she also worked as an attendant in Camelot's castle before she married Prince Arthur and became Queen Guinevere. The two lives she led lived side by side in her head, no longer confused between them.

She came down from the stars to see Arthur looking at her hopefully, his expression teetering between over the moon with joy and a complete breakdown. He looked just like he did when he asked her to marry him, and Gwen couldn't help the smile that came to her face. After hundreds of years, they were reunited. They beat impossible odds to see each other again, their love more everlasting than she would have dared to hope for. But, here they were.

Before she could think to give him some kind of a reply to the questioning look, she had already thrown her arms around him. She couldn't help but feel that she'd lose him again if she let him go now, that he'd disappear into the world and never come back. He returned her hug with just as much emphasis, and she could feel tears slide down her cheek. There was no way to hold them back, no reason to.

"Guinevere," Arthur said as he pulled away from the embrace. Gwen wanted to tell him off for cutting it so short when they haven't seen each other in hundreds of years, but then he pulled out a ring from his pocket, her ring. The one she had gave to Merlin to hold on to.

"We were able to cast an enchantment on this ring so I could find you. Let it again be a symbol of our love, a reminder that I will always be there for you and proof that not even death do us part."

Gwen held out her hand for him to put the ring on, and she only admired it again for a moment before he tilted her chin up to kiss her. She gave into the kiss immediately, the intimacy of it sending her heart into overdrive. Her lips moved against his with practiced ease, both of them wanting this more than anything but hesitant to go too fast and ruin it. The result was something so deep and sensual, it left Gwen weak in the knees, and she was glad to be sitting on the bench at the moment.

Which is about when she remembered she was in the courtyard at her workplace and she was still on shift and even though she was Gwen, she was still Jennifer and had a job to do.

So she pulled away from the kiss, more than a little breathless and light-headed and again met with those blue eyes she fell in love with. It would take all the strength that Arthur claimed she had to stop now, but she had to do it. Apparently, Arthur thought so, too because he didn't protest as much as she thought he would. In fact, he looked to be contemplating something important, like he did when he was planning out a quest.

"What is it, Arthur?" Gwen asked, her hand still on his cheek from before. He took her hand off and kissed it lightly before his face became stern again.

"As much as I would love to do this all day, there is actually something I need your help with," he hesitated for a moment before he took a deep breath and said, "Morgana's back, and Merlin and I need your help to defeat her."

NEVILLE

Neville cursed his luck sometimes. What other explanation is there to be had to explain why he and Ron were hiding in the middle of the woods under an invisibility cloak, not even 100 yards away from the darkest witch that ever lived and her two insane sisters? Not to mention their many followers, all of which were adult witches and wizards, most extremely skilled. The pair was sent to learn as much as they could about what their plans were and report back. It was a dangerous job, but they were both Gryffindors and accepted the task with all the courage expected of them. Or, at least they tried to.

"Remind me again how we got picked to do this?" Ron vehemently whispered, and Neville elbowed him in the side as a signal to shut up.

"Because Harry is busy organizing the Ministry and preparing for battle, you'd never let Hermione do this, and Draco is calling in favors to help us."

"Right," Ron whispered, his agitation gone at the mention of the fact that Hermione could be here doing this, instead. Neville understood and gave his friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder. It had been quiet for the last few minutes as the group set up the camp, but now it looked like everything was settling down and they were grouping up around a campfire. Many witches and wizards were erecting wards, but since Ron and Neville were already inside them, it didn't matter. The wind whistled around him, but thankfully it wasn't enough to block out the conversation they were trying to listen in on.

"So, you're our older sister," Morgana asked, "that was married off to become queen of another kingdom."

"Yes, and while you were trying to capture Camelot, we were in the middle of our own war," Elaine answered, but her voice was strained and even from a distance Neville could see her regret in her now slumped posture. "I came as soon as I could, but you were both already gone. Forgive me, my sisters… I-"

"Elaine, it's alright," Morgause comforted as she reached a hand out to put on her elder sister's shoulder, "We're all together now, thanks to your efforts. But where do we go from here?"

"Obviously we recapture Camelot, or England as it now is, and bring back magic. I've already started gathering accomplished witches and wizards, as they now call magic users, and with them we could take back what is rightfully ours," Morgana exclaimed, waving a hand to point out the numerous followers she had around her that were setting up camp at her orders.

"Do we need to recapture Camelot, though? Wouldn't bringing magic back to the light be enough?" Elaine ventured, and Neville surmised that she had never been the war mongering type, merely a protective older sister or mother to her people.

"No! Especially not when I know Merlin and Arthur are alive. While I was Emma and didn't know of their existence, that was my original plan, but now….they have both caused me too much pain to go unpunished. I want to take what is theirs and make it ours, to hurt them like they've hurt me."

Neville tuned out for a moment as the sisters devolved into arguing over whether or not that was a good idea, and so he turned to Ron for his thoughts, mindful of the many branches and leaves around him so as not to make much noise. His friend and coworker looked deep in thought, his brow creased together and his eyes fixed on one spot. It was a thing only a few of their Hogwarts friends knew, that Ron could actually concentrate and think logically through things. Neville thinks that being under Harry's shadow lowered Ron's confidence and subsequently his motivation for strategic thinking, but either way he made good use of it as an auror.

"Ron?" Neville prompted quietly, and his friends eyes slowly blinked back to reality.

"They're all sisters, but they haven't been around each other much, have they?"

Neville agreed with this but didn't see how it was relevant so he said, "Yes, and that means...?"

"That means that we can wedge them apart. Look, they already dissolved into bickering. If they decide to go on some kind of murdering spree like Morgan le Fay wants, perhaps Elaine and even Morgause could be persuaded to join us."

"We'd never get the opportunity to talk to them though… unless we send a letter or use a patronus," Neville solved his own question as he thought it.

"Right, it's at least an option for us. But blimey, I didn't think she'd really want to do something like take over London. It sounds so…"

"Cheesy?" Neville supplied, a small grin forming on his face as Ron turned back to nod his agreement and hold back a laugh. And that was when Neville noticed something peculiar. Or rather, he noticed the absence of something. The bickering had stopped. In fact, all talking and movement in the campsite had stopped, just the rustle of wind in his ears, only now it was growing much louder until he could feel a veritable wind storm behind him.

Thinking fast, he turned around and pointed his wand out, only for a silent spell to push him out of his hiding place, and right into the middle of the camp they were just listening in on. Neville turned to make sure Ron was alright, and was satisfied when he managed to sit up and rub at his head. And then all of his attention was taken up by the witch that approached him, a smirk he could only call evil on her lips as her beautiful but deadly eyes locked onto his. All the Gryffindor courage in him wasn't enough to suppress the shudder that ran down his spine.

"Well, well, looks like we've got a couple of spies in our midst," the most powerful witch in wizarding history taunted as she stalked up to them, "didn't anyone ever tell you that eavesdropping isn't very polite?"

Neville was about to say something, what he had no idea, when Ron held up his wand and silently cast something. Morgana didn't even flinch as she brought a hand up to stop the attack, no shield or spell that Neville could see. Old magic truly was on an entirely different level from wand magic.

"Now," Morgana began, her smirk stretching to a manic grin as her eyes grew more wild, "what should we do with them?"

"They know Merlin and Arthur, plus whatever part of the magic society of London we'll be facing," Morgause stated, and Neville's gaze flicked to her cold and rational expression before moving to the eldest sister, Elaine. She guarded her feelings carefully, a neutral expression that left no room for analyzing, but Neville didn't expect to get any help from her. He then turned to Ron, who must have turned to him at the same time. They both knew then what kind of fate they were in for.

As an auror, part of your training was dedicated to fortifying your mental strength. Harry was particularly good at it after he had practiced something similar in his fifth year with Snape, but it was never Neville's strength. He wasn't the worst at it, but, there was always a weak spot in his mind from being bullied at a young age. A weakness that while it could heal, would never be whole. Ron had his fair share, too, he knew from when they recounted their Horcrux gathering adventure and Ron succumbed to the effects more quickly than others.

They both had worked on it, though, put the extra effort into the training to overcome these weaknesses. Now, that would be put to the test. Both knew running wasn't an option with so many people there, and fighting was futile when your adversary could block any spell effortlessly. They might be able to cast a dark spell like fiendfyre, but they would almost surely die from it and even then the sisters would still come out alive.

No, it would come down to a test of endurance….if they could survive whatever they had in mind long enough for someone to come for them. Both men nodded in confirmation as their silent conversation came to end. They would endure, with their Gryffindor pride on the line.

"Well, then," Morgana taunted, as she waved her hands and vines grew from the ground to act as restraints for the two aurors. "Which one of you two should I torture first?"

And we will end there. Because your imagination is always better than whatever I could actually write, and we'll get to hear a recount of it later. And wow this took way too long to write. Particularly the first and last part, the second wrote itself in a day. Hopefully you all enjoyed watching Gwen fall in love with Arthur again as much as I did.


End file.
